


RE:Tale

by BrosBoning (Angelirae)



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Angst, Depression, Genocide Route, Hurt/Comfort, Incest, M/M, No Mercy Route, Slow Build, You Have Been Warned, alternate univers, more tags will be added, re:tale, seriously this is very self indulgent, time line hopping, to reset or not to reset
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2018-05-26 15:29:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 45,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6245290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelirae/pseuds/BrosBoning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sans knew he should have killed them right then and there, after all this wasn’t the first time he’d seen them emerge covered in dust, but it was the first time he’d ever seen them so determined.  With such a twisted expression no less.</p><p>Instead, he kept the promise he made with the woman behind the door against his better judgment and now he was paying the ultimate price.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Memory

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is my second Undertale fanfic! Hope you guys will enjoy and though it is not needed, I'd really love to hear what you guys think about this silly little AU of mine. Especially theories!  
> Everything in this fic is beta-read by the wonderful Agraulis_vanillae here on AO3! Definitely go give her stuff a read, seriously. Her stuff is so good!

 

He had stored away so many memories over the years.

Some were menial such as how to tie his shoes and how to make the perfect hotdog (or hotcat). Others were scientific documents and theories. And despite how he seemed lazy these days—had been for a while; Sans was highly intelligent. Not just anyone was able to work with the royal scientist of the Underground before they had even hit adulthood. Of course, that was long in the past. So many timelines ago that Sans couldn’t even piece together how old he actually was anymore. Memories like age really didn’t matter all too much when he had more important memories to hold on to.

Such as the way Papyrus’ eyes lit up and the curve of his mouth as he declared that spaghetti was for dinner (or lunch or even breakfast). The way the other’s spine straightened so proud  as he headed out to work to recalibrate his puzzles. How Papyrus’s voice quivered just a little when he was nervous, yet still he was full of bravado.

He remembered how Papyrus’ boney hands were warm to the touch even without his gloves. The way he woke up so early and knocked fervently on Sans’ door every morning for breakfast. Even the slightly annoyed nagging tone that he’d use to complain when Sans wouldn’t pick up his sock. Anything and everything about Papyrus was a treasured memory.

Especially now that he found himself in the golden-lit judgment hall in Asgore’s castle, his fist clinging to the dust-sprinkled red of his brother’s scarf. The fibers caught slightly on magic-charred fingers.

When he had first seen the human this time, he should have known something was wrong. Blood and dust covered their tiny hands. A knife clenched in their fingers and a smile plastered over their too-pale face.

He knew he should have killed them right then and there, after all this wasn’t the first time he’d seen them emerge covered in dust, but it was the first time he’d ever seen them so _determined_.  With such a twisted expression no less.

Instead, he kept the promise he made with the woman behind the door against his better judgment and now he was paying the ultimate price.

Papyrus was dead. His fiercely loyal belief in that everyone had some good in them and his pure innocence was his downfall.

Undyne had tried to stop the human shortly after realizing that Papyrus had missed his  scheduled meet up with her. Something he never did. She had fought the human too, lost so easily even after producing her own determination to stop the human from destroying the rest of the monsters.

Mettaton, so passionate about his stardom even was struck down in Neo form. Giving the human too much time to fight back.

Alphys, though Sans wasn’t a hundred percent sure, was likely dead as well if the large trail of blood and dust outside her lab was anything to go by. The human probably caught her trying to evacuate the remaining monsters.

And now Asgore.

Sans glanced to the side of the room, seeing the place where his king’s body had laid moments before.  He grimaces as he recalled how he pleaded for Asgore to just _leave_ and let Sans handle everything.

Of course, the king wasn’t going to continue to let the human destroy his people. He had pushed Sans aside and now his dust was spread over the judgment hall as the human had taken him unaware with their appearance. Sans was still unsure about that, but that’s the only thing that would explain how the king had just locked up and stared in horror at the child.

And now even he had been conquered by the tiny human, his bones fractured and blood stained the torn hoodie and his hands as he struggled to keep from turning to dust.

Sans clenched his fingers tighter into his brother’s scarf, body trembling as he tried to fight off the shock that the human had beat him, but he had known all along it was just a matter of time.

The human could reset every time he killed them and just study his moves. He had grown predictable and now, the human stood in front of him without even a single hit point taken. He had been so damn obvious to the human like a book read many times. And the large grin that split the kid’s face was enough for him to know the human had enjoyed every last minute of their fights and was now glowing over their victory.

Now that they had defeated him. There wasn’t really anything else to do but reset. San’s just had to stay conscious long enough for it to come about so he could be reunited with his brother again. Then they could go to–well, wherever Papyrus wanted. He’d do anything for his brother after this. He just wanted to see that smiling face once again.

The sound of sharp laughter cut his thoughts off and Sans focused back on the human.

“What are  you waiting for? A reset?”

The words confused him. Of course he was waiting for a reset. What else was there for the human to gain now that everyone was dead? There was nothing past this point. They could gain the other human souls and –!

_Leave the Underground._

“There aren’t going to me anymore resets when I’m done.” Their voice was jovial, but twisted, seeping in a darkness that Sans couldn’t even comprehend. How could someone hold so much hate in their heart? That they would come to the Underground, destroy everything and then want to return to the surface and destroy their own people too?

Sans ached to know what kind of torment had happened to this child for there to be so much hatred in them, but stopping them was more important. If he didn’t he’d never see Papyrus again.

Swallowing hard, Sans pulled his hand from Papyrus’ scarf and summoned up what little magic he had left, breathing heavily as he flung his arm away from him.

“Not if I can help it!” he growled out, magic pulsing across his hand and flared up in his left socket. A sharp pain throbbed at the side of his head as he heard a crack, but ignored it to focus on the human. Blue sweat beaded across his skull as he struggled to remain standing. He was far too exhausted to have another fight, but that was what determination was about, wasn’t it? To keep fighting when there was no way that he could win.

The human’s grin widened and they teetered on their feet joyously, spinning a bit in amusement, laughter spilling from their lips. “Oh really? You actually think that you can beat me after _that_? I’ve already won, _bonehead_. ” They flashed their teeth, eyes taking on a much harsher light as they cocked their head to the side, a knife pulled back up ready to fight, “You’ve got to be joking!”

Sans’ ever-present grin slipped from his face and he watched the human carefully, voice barely above a whisper as he just let the words fall from his mouth, “who said anything about winning?”

He tossed his head up, eyes flashing dangerously, blue light streaming from his socket. Magic buzzing with harsh energy, “I just can’t lose!”

Sans panted rugged breaths, his skull pounding as the crackling sound became louder only to be drowned out by the human’s cruel laughter.

“Oh? And how do you plan to—“ They started only to cut off as Sans collapsed to the ground, skeletal hands clutching his skull. His panting grew louder and mystical tears formed at the corner of his eye sockets.

The human only laughed harder as Sans curled in upon himself, fingers desperate on his splitting skull and little mutters left his teeth.

His magic was too weak, he could feel it. Despite the fact that he was able to get it to come up again, it wasn’t nearly as pronounced as it had been with his fight with the human before. It just wasn’t _enough!_

Sans grit his teeth tighter, sockets shutting in pain, as he forced more magic to the surface, feeling the pain of it leaving his bones. Another crackle and he started trembling, mouth twitching as finally his frantic words became recognizable to the human.

_Reset. Reset. Reset._

Nothing.

“Reset? Didn’t you hear me? There aren’t going to be anymore resets you, _idiot_!” the child mocked, taking a step toward Sans, knife held out loosely, as if this was all just a _game_ to them.

The skeleton only continued his desperate chanting, fingers scraping against his skull as he tugged at his magic. After a particularly hard yank, his voice hitched, cutting off and eyes snapped open. The magic abruptly left his socket, leaving them empty and black. No light in his eyes as a resound snap echoed across the hall.

The pain was agonizing, yet somehow Sans managed not to scream out. Body shaking, head literally split down the side and gradually, Sans pushed himself back onto his feet.

His legs trembled as his body shook, a grin spread across his face as he felt something resound within him. He felt cold. So cold yet so strong. So _determined_.

Slowly, the magic wafted from his eye again. Instead of the bright blue and yellow, a dark black and violet oozed, drifting off leisurely through the air, shimmering in the light from the windows.

The human swallowed hard, eyes wide as they tightened their grip on the knife. Something was definitely different. And not a good different.

Sans stepped forward, head tilted at an odd angle as he resumed his soft chants of ‘Reset. Reset. Reset.’ His voice echoed with a deeper, almost dulcet purr. Or growl. Soft chuckles left his mouth, yet the human couldn’t figure out just _how_ he managed is as words continued to flow freely.

“You took everything from me…” the skeleton began, stepping gradually closer, slippers making his approach nearly silent.

The human jolted back, eyes alight with a hint of fear, “St-stay back!” they called out, knife shoved in front of them protectively as Sans continued forward. He had lost everything. There was nothing left for him to lose except his life and hell, was that even worth anything if he no longer had his brother?

The sound of a Gaster Blaster being summoned twisted the human’s expression more.

“Now I’ll take everything from you!” Sans growled out, eyes narrowing as he took one more step forward. Beneath him, the tiles moved beneath his feet, shifting only to crack and his eyes flew open as he fell into the void.

He looked upward, seeing the golden light of the judgment hall growing further away. The human poked their head over the edge and let out a harsh laugh. He could see their lips moving, probably some inane bullshit, but Sans could no longer hear them.

He reached upward as if somehow he’d be able to grab ahold of the light and pull himself up, but a deep darkness weighed him down, entwining him with cold tendrils. Sans fought as his magic left him, fading into the abyss slowly as he struggled to breathe. 

The darkness continued to take him until; finally, he closed his eyes, giving in to the inevitability of death. _Maybe I’ll see you again after all, Paps…_ he thought before he completely blacked out.

 

An intense chill jolted Sans awake. His head throbbed painfully in the frigid breeze of the snowy air of Snowdin forest. He was floating above the ground, binary spiraling around his body as he was lowered to the ground. When his feet finally touched down, the small skeleton stumbled forward, weak on his legs.

As the numbers faded, Sans reached to his skull and rubbed at the crack that split his left eye socket and trailed down the side of his head. It was jagged and certainly ached, but it was nothing like it had been when it was formed. An image of sterile, white hands brushing against his soul flashed in his mind only to dissipate just as quick as it had come.  Sans dropped his hand with a sigh and then took in his surroundings, trying to will away the creepy sensation that he was being watched.

He was in a forest with thick trees, mostly pines and other evergreens. It reminded him of Snowdin at night. Then he saw a sliver of the ruins tucked neatly behind the tree line.

Definitely Snowdin Forest. And if he was back here then—

“P-Papyrus!” He called out, lurching forward to rush home. If he had the energy, he’d have used one of his short cuts but his vision was already swimming from all the stress of the day. His vision blurred but he summoned the image of his brother’s tender smile and threw himself forward. He was chilled to the bone and he was starting to see double, but he had to get to Papyrus.

Tears spilled free as he hurried toward the down. Sans could feel his energy drain further, his body swaying and smile spread across his face. He took another step as finally, the strain of the day’s events caught up to him.

The lights of his eyes flickered out and he faltered. He managed a quiet, “P-Pap…y….rus…” before his body slumped forward and he fell, face planting into the thick snow outside the town.

Sans awoke to the warmth of downy blankets wrapped around him and the thick scent of warm ginger tea. He mumbled under his breathe, trying to piece together where he was once again.

The skeleton rolled over and pushed himself up in a sitting position, rubbing his eye sockets before cracking them open to take in his new surroundings. Immediately his eyes snapped to the form of his brother sitting in a chair at the side of his bed. Tears pricked at his sockets once more, brows furrowing in confusion at the uncharacteristic somber expression upon his brother’s face, but at least he was back with his brother.

“Papyrus?”

The taller skeleton shot to his feet, quickly making his way to Sans’ side and set his mug of tea on the end table, eyes never leaving Sans’ figure. Yet instead of taking his older brother in his arms and giving him a huge hug, as he normally would have done, Papyrus stood beside the bed and hugged himself awkwardly.

Sans’ smile slipped a little from his face, confusion lacing his tone, “Paps?” He let his gaze fall over his brother’s slender frame, noticing how instead of his pajamas or battle body, the other skeleton was dressed more modestly. A pink sweater and tan pants covered his frame, which in itself was weird.

Papyrus had always disliked how warm sweaters made him. Said they made him want to fall asleep.

“Sans, I…” his brother replied, voice soft, disordered and filled with a pain that should not have ever been present in the younger skeleton’s voice. Sans swallowed thickly as he watched as Papyrus began shivering, bones rattling underneath the thick, misplaced sweater.

“You’ve been gone for sixteen months, Sans…”

Immediately Sans shifted where he sat, averting his eyes and quickly covered his face, shying away. A lie was in his mouth as soon as he opened it, “Heh. Good one, bro.  You know I could never leave you alone that lo—“

“YOU DIED, SANS!”

Sans’ eyes were wide, the lights that made up his pupils faded back, leaving empty sockets as the words hit him. _There was no way. No way…It’s a lie._ He told himself, but the way that Papyrus was trembling, how the tears slipped down his face and the pure _agonized_ look that accompanied them told him everything he needed.

“I-I saw you died and I…I couldn’t…” his brother whimpered, one arm clenched and at his side while Papyrus lifted the other and was wiping at his face, getting rid of the tears as quickly as he could. Not wanting his brother to see the weakness spill from his sockets.

Slowly, Sans turned away from Papyrus, ignoring the immediate response of wanting to jump to the younger skeleton’s side and comfort him. Instead, he dropped his gaze to his chest, eyes half-closing as he saw the dusty red of his brother’s scarf still around his neck. With trembling bones, Sans dipped his hand beneath the scarf and pulled out a soft, silky bag.

Gently, Sans brushed his thumb over the smooth surface of the bag, lights in his eyes back as he looked at the pouch, mouth completely devoid of that trademark smile of his as he stared at the token. Blind to how Papyrus had dropped to his knees and continued sobbing.

A weak, humorless chuckle left Sans’ mouth as he leaned back into the pillows. He stuffed the bag back under his brother’s scarf and sighed, looking off into nowhere as he let the words slip from his teeth, “Wrong timeline…”

The ghostly feeling of hands never quite leaving his bones.


	2. Differences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up! I most likely wont make many comments on chapter summaries. I'm far more active on my Tumblr:  
> brosboning.tumblr.com  
> So if you want to catch me (or get chapters waaaaaaaay ahead of anyone on here, then I recommend going there.  
> After I post what I have completed, then I'll only update here ever 5 chapters and bulk upload! Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoy!

 

 

 

The sounds of pots and pans hitting the ground jolted Sans from his sleep. Slowly he looked around, grin twitching as he noticed how clean his room was and the fact he had actual sheets on his bed. He let out a yawn, sockets closing as he covered his permanent grin with a small hand only to jump at the sound of pot and pans hitting the ground.

Papyrus was certainly getting ready to make breakfast spaghetti. With a sigh, Sans pushed himself from his bed, brows furrowing as he noticed the mug of tea still sitting on the end table. Suddenly the reality of his whereabouts hit him full fore, knocking what oxygen he had from his chest.

Right. He was no longer in his timeline and the Papyrus down stairs wasn’t _his_ Papyrus. Tenderly, Sans pressed his hand to his chest and rubbed at the painful ache that throbbed through his sternum and branched through his ribs. His body felt heavy, heavier than it had before and with the nightmares of the kid killing his friends and brother fresh in his mind, that was really saying something.

His boney digits pressed harder before Sans had to remove his hand, realizing he was putting enough pressure on his bones that it almost felt bruised. The short skeleton let out a shaky sigh, the white lights that made up his eyes trailed to the door and he just stared at the frame for a moment.

What was he supposed to do? Certainly, this Papyrus didn’t want him around. He wasn’t _his_ Sans any more than this Papyrus was his Papyrus. And if Papyrus had seen him die as he claimed, him being here certainly wouldn’t help out this version of his brother any. The last thing he wanted was to be a constant reminder of some tragic past.

A knock at the door brought Sans back to the present, his thoughts temporarily discarded as he quickly stammered out a reply, not wanting to keep Papyrus waiting.

“C-Come in.”

Papyrus opened the door just a crack, leaving only just enough room for the taller skeleton—still dressed in a sweater and tan jeans—to poke his head in.

The younger of the two glanced at Sans for just a moment before averting his gaze, his jaw clacking lightly

“I finished breakfast, if…if you want something to eat,” Papyrus informed his hands wringing at the bottom hem of his shirt. He lingered a moment longer before quickly turning around, closing the door behind him and made his way back down the stairs and into the kitchen.

Sans had simply froze as the other had spoken. A few minutes later, he rubbed at his fore arm, fingers grazing against his radius and ulna before he followed after Papyrus. He wasn’t particularly hungry, but he also didn’t want to waste Papyrus’ efforts.

Gradually, Sans made his way down the stairs his hands stuffed in his jacket pockets. Papyrus quickly motioned toward the dining room table before disappearing into the kitchen to retrieve a plate.

The smaller skeleton slipped into the offered seat and waited letting his eyes roam about the living room spotting all the subtle differences between it and the room in his own time line.

Most things remained the same; the same paint job, same tacky carpeting, same television, same sofa. The room was as spotless as usual, but where the sock and sticky notes normally were was a pile of socks. As if they had been purposely dumped against the wall. The television was off, which was also odd since his Papyrus always had the tv on when he was home as background noise.  The lack of MTT on was almost unsettling.

Sans heard Papyrus approaching with breakfast and turned his attention back on the other skeleton and the food on the plate.

Pancakes.

Sans furrowed his brow, confused for a moment, eyes flicking toward Papyrus before landing back on his plate. It smelled good, certainly, but it was not the mediocre spaghetti that he was used to. Even if the cinnamon smelled heavenly, it was just another reminder that he had failed to get back to his timeline. He had failed Papyrus.

Before he realized what he was doing, Sans spoke up, voice barely a whisper, “What is this?”

Papyrus clicked his mouth together, eyes looking away and a hand moving to rub nervously at his arm

‘They're called pancakes… They're a human breakfast f—“

“No I mean. Where’s the spa—“

Finally Sans’ brain caught up with his mouth and he quickly shut up and picked up the fork that Papyrus had set on the plate, “Never mind. Thank you…”

 Silently, Sans berated himself for being so rude. Not only was he technically intruding on Papyrus’ home, he was also questioning his hospitality. He’d have to figure out what he was going to do and soon. There was no way he could comfortably live here knowing that this wasn’t his brother; not really. He couldn’t in good conscience have this Papyrus house him when his real brother was dead.

Slowly, Papyrus nodded and stepped away to go clean up the mess he had made. Sans thought about telling him to forget about it. That he'd do it, but quickly shut his mouth when he noticed the pensive expression on Papyrus face. He swallowed hard and quickly stuffed a bite into his mouth, eyes widening as the flavor hit him.

It was good. Like _really_ good. San’s let his gaze move to Papyrus once again, a little awe and confusion written on his face. How had this Papyrus become such a good cook? Was this his culinary obsession as spaghetti was his Papyrus’ or was he just naturally a good cook in this time line? Sans stuffed another bite into his mouth when he realized that Papyrus hadn’t actually eaten anything, which seemed odd since he had bothered to cook food for him.

“What about you?” Sans voiced, stuffing another bite into his mouth and chewed steadily.

Papyrus froze as he set aside the now-clean bowl he had used to mix the batter. His shoulders raised and noticeably tense even through the thick, pink, sweater and trademark red scarf.

Gradually, Papyrus relaxed and turned around, turning off the water in the process. His eyes were fixed on the ground and he grit his teeth together, a slight grinding sound leaving his teeth before he swallowed.

“Ah… nyeh heh… Well I’m just not hungry this morning. N-no need to worry about it, broth—Sans,” he replied, quickly amending his words. Sans winced a little at the words. He knew that Papyrus was just as aware of how awkward and unnatural this was; talking with another time line’s version of your brother was a strange experience. Especially when your real brother was dead.

Sans chose not to make a comment about it and simply nodded his head, eyes still fixed on Papyrus as the taller brother-look-alike dried off his hands with a red hand town and made his way to the front door. Sans didn’t miss the fact that Papyrus couldn’t meet his eyes and to be fair, he doubted he'd be able to either.

“Ah…I’m sorry but I have to go…Um… Just…” Papyrus started, stopped at the door, fiddling with his scarf and sweater once more before reaching out and twisting the knob.

“Make yourself at home, okay?”  
  
Sans swallowed hard but nodded, eyes boring holes within his pancakes.

“Y-Yeah…Um. Good bye,” Sans replied, flipping a small triangle of pancake into a pool of syrup. He continued staring at his plate and playing with his food before he heard Papyrus leave, door shutting behind him. He didn’t notice that he had been holding his breath until, finally, several minutes later he let out a rugged sigh.

Sans motioned to spear the triangle when he caught sight of the pet rock that the Sans—or perhaps Papyrus had in this time line.

While in his own time line, Sans often forgot to feed the rock. Of course that was because he knew it really didn’t need to be fed and he had enough on his plate to really bother. In fact, he had started that little pet rock thing when Papyrus was a child as a way to teach Papyrus that even small, seemingly unimportant things needed nurturing. Love and nurture everyone, especially those that couldn’t help themselves. His Papyrus had since then always fed his rock, even into adulthood, but this?

Seeing the rock laying abandoned on the plate; the sprinkles aged and long since forgotten, ruined Sans appetite.

The skeleton set down his fork and pushed the plate away, mentally telling himself to come back for it later and clean up. Right now, he had to get out of the house. He needed to do something to help alleviate the weight that pressed down on his tired bones.

He needed to go to speak to Grillby.

 

He needed to speak to Undyne.

By the time that Papyrus had made his way to from the boat person’s boat and up to his best friend’s home, he was breathing rapidly, trying to keep from hyperventilating. He paced outside the Royal Guard’s house until several minutes later, the red-haired fish snapped her door open. She was about to chew out Papyrus for fooling around instead of entering, but quickly caught herself after seeing the skeleton’s state.

Features softening, Undyne approached her panicked friend. This, unfortunately, not the first time she has had to tend to a hysterical Papyrus. Slowly, she wrapped an arm around Papyrus’ shoulder and gently steered him toward her home, closing the door behind them once he was inside.

“Come on, sit down and tell me what’s up. I’ll get some tea started,” Undyne voiced, keeping her tone soft but steady. When Papyrus was like this, she had to keep her own emotions in check. She worried for him, of course! But when he was this panicked, he needed her to be strong. After all, she had been his backbone since Sans had abandoned him almost two years ago.

With Papyrus seated, Undyne gave the skeleton a quick, reassuring squeeze on the shoulder before moving to go prepare the tea. Her movements slow and fluid rather than the rough horseplay she’d normally portray. Papyrus didn’t need loud and boisterous right now, excitement was for once he calmed down.

Papyrus flinched from the squeeze and swallowed hard, trembling in the chair as he hunched forward. His hands folded as he rested his forehead against his knuckles. Where in the world was he supposed to start?

He couldn’t very well tell her that Sans had come back because he _hadn’t_. He never _would_. Undyne, of course, knew that he was a mess because of Sans. He always was and as always, Undyne was being the best friend that he could have possibly ask for. Papyrus had no clue how he would have survived had it not been for her constant presence.

Papyrus felt the heat from his face before he noticed the tears slipping down his cheek bones, staining his face with orange streaks. Quickly, he wiped them onto his sleeve and took a deep, shaky breath. He tried to inhale, exhale. To breathe deeply just like she had taught him over a year ago. Sometimes it helped, sometimes it didn’t, but it was better than nothing.

The silence stretched, Papyrus lost in his own thoughts while Undyne finished up with the tea.

When the young woman set the mug in front of Papyrus, he startled from his thoughts, eyes wide before nodding in thanks, his fingers wrapping around the handle delicately.

Undyne shifted, setting herself next to her friend, placing her hand on his forearm gently. Just as quickly, she removed it, knowing how Papyrus didn’t like prolonged contact all that much anymore, something she surely missed.

Even though she had initially given Papyrus the idea of cooking to him as some alternative training to eventually replace the royal guard training, she would have never guessed in a million years that the once passionate skeleton would tell her himself that he was no longer interested. Thankfully, Papyrus did want to continue the cooking. Undyne knew, deep down, the skeleton was still interested in being a royal guard—he had been much too passionate about it for him to just suddenly lose interest , but she had quickly agreed to continue the cooking lessons.

Truthfully, Undyne was relieved, but at the same time, she hated the fact that something had changed Papyrus. He was far meeker and less excitable than he used to be. Sure, he still had his moments of unbridled love for helping others. He still did his best, but ever since Sans had left, the younger skeleton brother had been almost a shell of his former self.

She missed him in a way even when he was sitting there right in front of her.

A few more tears slipped free from Papyrus’ sockets and Undyne gently wiped them away, a reassuring smile upon her face. Papyrus chuckled softly, returning the smile before he folded his arms on the table and rested his head on them. One would think that he was relaxed, but Undyne had long since recognized the tension in his shoulders and knew better.

Papyrus was broken without Sans. And why wouldn’t he be with the kind of feelings he held for his brother?

“Papyrus?”

The taller of the two closed his eyes and buried his face further into his arms, ignoring the way that his skull pressed the threads of his sweater into his arms. He had long since gotten used to _that_.

“I just miss him. H-He’s been gone for so long…” Papyrus muttered, voice hitching as he tried to quickly stifle back the emotion trying to spill free. He had always been bad at hiding his emotions. Wore them on his sleeve, or so the saying goes.

“I know. I know, babe,” Undyne reassured, reaching a hand out to his and let Papyrus take her hand on his own accord. A smile reaching her eyes as a few minutes later Papyrus wrapped his slender fingers between hers and squeezed.

“I miss his laugh. I miss how he would stay up so he could sing me to sleep. How his eyes would to that…squinty thing when he was happy. I miss how he would leave his laundry on the floor…” Papyrus continued, shuddering as he tightened his hand around Undyne’s, a pathetic chuckle leaving his mouth.

“I even miss those dreadful puns of his.”

Undyne nodded, squeezing his hand back and leaned closer to him, pressing her lips to the side of his skull, “I know. Just be patient. He’ll come back. There is no way that Sans would abandon you, you know? You mean the world to him. There has to be a reason why he needed to leave,” she spoke, rubbing gentle circles into the boney top of Papyrus’ hand.

Even though her words were meant to be reassuring, she knew that they didn’t help too much. Not to mention the fact that she was starting to shake now too, but instead of out of grief, it was out of rage.

When Sans did return, she was going to beat the tar out of him for what he had done to Papyrus. What kind of brother just up and left his younger sibling alone without so much as a word? Undyne would grab him, shake him and tear into him worse than a human if she so much as sees his stupid face again.

Papyrus only sniffled more, trying to keep his voice from cracking, but failed as her words ripped into him like knives. Instead, Papyrus leaned his head to the side, resting it on his friend’s shoulder.

“Y-Yeah. You’re right… I’m j-just being…being silly again. Th-thanks Undyne…” he replied, voice so low that Undyne had to strain to hear it even in such proximity. “What would I ever do without you?”

Undyne gave a soft sigh. She knew that as optimistic Papyrus was, one could only take so much. To be completely honest, she was terrified to think of what would have happened to precious Papyrus had she not been there to keep him afloat. She quickly pushed aside the image of dust piled upon a red scarf and held Papyrus tighter.


	3. Idea

 

 

 

 

The trip to Grillby’s was a quick one. As in his own timeline, the bar and grill that the silent fire elemental owned and operated was just a short walk away. The scent of food was absolutely intoxicating to the skeleton as he pushed open the door, eye sockets widening at the many subtle differences that presented themselves.

The floors were hardwood, polished to the point that they reflected everything that touched it. That was mostly normal, though it was made of a much darker wood. Instead of the calming oranges wood from his time line, this wood was almost a deep red. Possibly mahogany. The bar, while settled where it normally was, was also just as polished as t he floors. Oddly enough, there was some chrome accents along the front of the bar and Sans couldn’t help but flinch back from his reflection.

While he, himself, looks about the same as normal, he noticed a long crack that split the left side of his left eye, curling along the side of his skull before stopping just behind where his ears would be had he any ears. Sans swallowed thickly and quickly averted his eyes from the wound, wondering absently how Papyrus hadn’t noticed the crack or if he was just being polite enough not to say anything about it.

Other than the crack along his skull—why couldn’t he remember where it came from? His clothing as for the most part the same, though their previously bright colors were muted. Where the vibrant blue of his jacket was, was a dark, almost navy blue. The grey hood and pockets were a deep black and his turtle neck was also black.  The only thing that seemed to be unchanged was the bright red of his Papyrus’ scarf tied around his neck.

Sans removed his eyes from the bar and glanced around the establishment, tallying up the other differences, though none too stark except the coloration of some things and their placement. Such as all the leather bound stools and booths—normally red—was a nice goldenrod color. The tables and juke box, otherwise, were exactly as he had remembered. The thing that really threw him off was the fact that everything was switched like a mirror image of his own Grillby’s.

The booths were on the left instead of the right, and the tables were to the right. It was just enough differences that it threw the skeleton for a loop. Thankfully the sound of hushed tones finally caught up to him and he noticed how the regulars were looking at him with a look of confusion and wonder.

It wasn’t until he made his way to his normal spot at the foot of the bar that he finally understood what was going on.

They were used to him not being here. He was supposed to be dead in this time line right. But if that were the case, wouldn’t they have a look of fear rather than surprise? _What exactly is going on here?_ Sans thought, leaning forward onto the bar only for Grillby to make his way to him and slide a tall glass of milkshake toward the confused skeleton.

Sans flickered his gaze from the offered milkshake up to Grillby’s face, brows furrowed. A milkshake? Shouldn’t it have been a bottle of ketchup or mustard? Slowly, Sans nodded his head toward Grillby, accepting the fire elemental’s hospitality. He might as well drink it since the man had went through the trouble of making it. It wasn’t like it was just a bottle of ketchup.

Milkshakes required a lot of ingredients, right?

“Thanks, Grilbz,” Sans murmured, taking the straw into his mouth and sucked a little at the treat. While it was indeed good,  _peanut butter and bacon?_ It was a little different from his usual and the cold wasn’t as calming as the room-temperature ketchup he ached for.

The fire elemental leaned forward a moment, as if expecting something, only to pull away a moment later, confusion written on his face. Had Sans done something wrong? The small skeleton quickly wiped the thought from his mind, noticing that the other customers were back to talking amongst themselves. The dogs were playing poker in the corner while a group of teenagers that Sans was unfamiliar with chatted away. Occasionally he would catch one of the denizens looking at him as if expecting him to say something still, but none of them spoke up.

“Don’t worry about them,” Grillby started only to pause,  as if searching for a correct word to use before continuing, “…Sans. It’s just been a long time since you were here. You did leave without telling any of us goodbye. They will get over it soon enough.” His voice was deep, almost sultry, but that was just how his Grillby had sounded too. Of course, like Sans, the fire elemental’s voice was produced with magic. Not having a mouth and all.

Sans shrugged and continued sipping at his milkshake before popping his teeth from the straw, “…Yeah. I suppose that is true. I um…didn’t have much choice in the matter,” he informed. If Sans from this time line had died, it was obvious he hadn’t planned to leave without saying goodbye, right? That was a safe enough bet. The odd thing was how everyone just thought that the Sans had just walked out one day and never came back, not died. Was Papyrus sure that his Sans was dead and hadn’t just left like everyone else thought?

He would have to ask about it sometime. Maybe. If he ever got comfortable enough around the other Papyrus. Hell, he didn’t exactly even want to stay in the house, but where else was he supposed to go? He couldn’t very well go live in the woods, could he? But he also couldn’t intrude on Papyrus like this either.

Sans let out a sigh, pushing the milkshake away before folding his arms and laying his head on them. What was he to do? Wasn’t he here to talk to Grillby anyway? He hoped that this time line’s Grillby was just as good a listener as the one from his own time line. Maybe it was just a universal constant.

“Say, Grilbz… what if…” Sans paused. How exactly was he going to explain this? Letting out another sigh, Sans nestled himself into his arms and took a deep breath.

“What if you one day woke up and found out that everything that you loved was taken away from you? Everyone is gone, but not. Like… Everyone is still there but at the same time, it’s not them. They are mostly the same but there are little differences about them that hint that it’s not really them, but instead some kind of…alternate universe version of them?”

His voice was quiet as he spoke, just loud enough that he knew that Grillby would be able to hear him, but the other patrons wouldn’t be able to catch on. He just hoped that this Grillby was used to all this bullshit by now. It would be somewhat disheartening to know that this Grillby didn’t care or thought him even more out of place than Sans already felt.

For a while, the bartender remained quiet. Mulling things over perhaps before finally, he pulled up a stool from his side of the counter and took a hold of his cleaning cloth and an already-clean glass. He sat down and slowly began polishing the glass. Finally, after several minutes, Grillby spoke up, his voice that eerie reverb that Sans had grown to find comfort in.

“I suppose I’d just try and hold out. Things may be bad, but perhaps they aren’t as bad as they seem and just remember the good times. If that is not an option, perhaps I’d  take matters into my own hands and try to return things to normal. What is this about? Did you have another nightmare, Sans?”

The elemental had spoken, his voice even but even with a glance, Sans could tell that Grillby was tense. Worried too if the furrow of his brow was anything to go by. Sans couldn’t help but feel a little guilty that he had worried his friend—or at least the alternate version of him. Still, he felt comfortable with this Grillby; be it because the gentle warmth that exuded from him or the relative similarity between this Grillby and his own.

 

Sans slowly nodded, letting his mind wrap around the other’s words. They made sense really. Things really weren’t as bad as they could be, he supposed. He could have been transported to a time with another genocide run or where everyone was really violent and the world was really kill or be killed. Sans couldn’t keep from shivering at the thought. A world with a violent Papyrus. That would be a true nightmare.

Still what Grillby had said resonated with him. Deal with this time line the best he could, but take matters into his own hands. He just had to try teleporting again. Or he supposed try to reset so that he would teleport. Whatever the case. He had done it once, he could do it again.

He shook away the feeling of unfamiliar hands against his soul.

Slowly, Sans smiled at the bartender, the first genuine one he had managed to pull since he arrived. Not too long ago, he supposed, but things were already looking up. He just had to try and teleport back into his own timeline and get things fixed up. Everything could be normal again!

Sans quickly slid off the barstool, the patrons of the bar jolting back in surprise at such an active motion before settling back down, their eyes still planted on the skeleton.

“Thanks, Grilbz. You always have the _brightest_ ideas,” he replied, chuckling lightly to himself. Though the pun wasn’t that great, and probably could hardly be considered a pun in all honesty, Sans was still in good enough mood to laugh at his own jokes. Let alone joke at all he supposed.

With a quick wave of his hand, the skeleton made his way out of the comfort of the grill and into the relatively warmth that enveloped Snowdin that day. He had a few more hours to spare before Papyrus would return home, he hoped. This Papyrus certainly followed the same schedule as his own, right? He had left about the same time as his Papyrus did for sentry duty.

The thought forced Sans to stumble and proceed to drag his feet through the snow before he realized that he hadn’t even worn slippers that day. Ah, right. He had lost one of them when he fell into this time line.

Who knew where the other was.

Shaking his thoughts from his head, Sans quickly made his way back to Papyrus’ house. He needed to try and teleport again before Papyrus got home. He just hoped that when he left, that this Papyrus would be okay. He had lived without his Sans for so long, surly him leaving wouldn’t change much.

 

Sans couldn’t help but punch the wall of his counterpart in this world. Thankfully, no cracks formed in the wall, but his bones were sore from how many times he had hit the walls in frustration.

He had failed. _Again._

How many times had he tried to bring up the magic to reset or teleport or _anything_ , but every time there was some kind of wall. A barrier that got in his way. While he wasn’t exactly the best with his own magic, he had enough control over it to fight. To be a danger to anyone in his way. He was powerful, he knew that. Kind of ironic with the single HP that he had for the majority of his life. Even still, his own power wasn’t enough to stop the human and now he found that it was also not strong enough to teleport him out of this time line either.

Every time he tried, that strange barrier stopped him. The weirdest thing was that it didn’t exactly _feel_ like a wall. More like some strange darkness or a void that wouldn’t let him pass, trapping him in this horrible timeline.

Sans grit his teeth, growling as he tried to pull forth his magic again only to get wisps of frayed, blue strands of the stuff to form before he exhausted himself. He had tried too much today and his magic was running thin. Finally, Sans turned away from the wall, panting heavily from exerting himself so much. He would have to try again after he had replenished his magic.

The short skeleton turned on his heels and made his way to the bed only to freeze.

Papyrus had told him to make himself at home, certainly, but it felt wrong to just take the skeleton’s brother’s bed. It may have been Sans’ bed, but still not _his._ With a sigh, Sans turned back to the door, opening and closing it behind him before making his way down stairs. He’d just nap on the couch, that way it wasn’t entirely horrible. That’s what guests usually did when staying the night and he supposed that in this case, he was technically a guest.

Sans quickly climbed up on the sofa and plopped himself down, the back of his skull resting on the arm of the couch before he finally drifted asleep.

 


	4. Mistakes

 

 

It was late by the time that Papyrus returned home.  The sky had already darkened, the magic acting as a sun having disappeared several hours ago.

Papyrus had spent the entire day with Undyne, which was a normal thing when he was feeling well enough to even leave the house. The days he couldn’t even bother, Undyne had to drop by, something that Papyrus appreciated even if he felt guilty taking time out of his friend’s schedule.

He knew there had been a few days that the Royal Guard had skipped out on work just to make sure he was okay. She had some strong intuition sometimes. Papyrus’ mouth curled into a bit of a smile, thinking back on the woman and how gentle she was with him. He wished that he could do more for her, sometimes just food wasn’t enough of a thanks.

Papyrus let out a sigh, turning the nob to his house and slowly opening the door. Before heading in, he peeked into the dim light, cautious. Spotting Sans napping on the couch, Papyrus took a shaky breath before letting himself in.

He didn’t quite know what to feel about it. On one hand, having a Sans in his house that wasn’t his brother was really unnerving. Papyrus wanted him gone in some regards. He wasn’t his brother, not really, and that was so wrong. But on the other hand, seeing that even this different Sans had a few habits that his own Sans settled his nerves in a way.

The taller skeleton closed the door gently behind him, eyes still resting on the sleeping form of Sans before forcing himself to pry his eyes away. It was rude to stare and it was late. Though he didn’t sleep much—never really had, even before Sans die—disappeared, Papyrus didn’t want to wake the other skeleton with his normal nightly habits.

Swallowing the feeling in what would have been his throat, Papyrus started toward the kitchen, only to pause when he noticed Sans’ breakfast plate on the table. Papyrus couldn’t fight back the soft sob that left him. It was just so _normal_. Exactly something that his Sans would have done.

Papyrus reached toward his chest and rubbed at his sternum, gentle with the tender bone, not wanting his sweater to get snag on the grooves that littered the surface. With that in his mind, Papyrus quickly removed his hand, made his way to the table, picked up the fork and plate, and made his way to the kitchen to wash it.

The sound of running water made Sans stir in his sleep. While he did sleep a lot, he had always been a light sleeper. Always alert in case something bad would happen. _Apparently not alert enough_ , he mocked himself, a hand moving to grab at the scarf only to feel the bag that he kept around his neck. Sans swallowed hard, closing his eyes in pain before removing his hand. Since he was awake now, he might as well stay up.

The smaller skeleton pushed himself from the sofa, his hand moving back to the scarf and straightened it much like Papyrus used to do before he left for work. When he got to the kitchen, Sans hunched into his hoodie. He had forgotten to wash the plate when he got back to the house with the urgency of trying to teleport back to his own time line. _As much a failure as_ that _had been…_

Sans stood in the door frame, watching as Papyrus scrubbed away at the plate, feeling even more guilt as the syrup on the plate had to be really sticky by now and a pain to clean up. Not to mention how his eyes wandered over Papyrus’ slender frame.

The smaller skeleton grit his teeth, noticing how this Papyrus didn’t sway or dance as he did dishes. Not even so much as a hum and it felt _wrong_.

Papyrus was supposed to be this kind-hearted, excitable being that brought light wherever he went. This? This wasn’t Papyrus. It may have looked like him and had a few of the same mannerisms such as the cleaning and the cooking, but this Papyrus wasn’t the sun. If anything he more resembled the moon. A cold, lifeless rock. It was so wrong.

Sans quickly shook the thought from his head, telling himself that really, he was the same way as this Papyrus. He had lost his brother just as this Papyrus had lost his brother. Sans continued standing in the doorway before scratching the back of his skull. He supposed he should say something. Apologize for being a burden or whatever.

“S-sorry…I had intended to wash that once I got back from Grillby’s…”

Papyrus jumped, eyes wide as he dropped the plate in the sink, breaking the already worn ceramic. He leapt back, keeping himself from being cut on the glass before turning around to look at Sans only to be pushed aside as Sans moved toward the sink.

Sans’ could feel his soul fluttering frantically, scared that the glass would have cut his brother’s hands.  Thankfully, Papyrus had moved out of the way before anything like that could happen. Even still, Sans couldn’t calm himself until after he had gathered all the glass from the sink and tossed it in the nearby trashcan. He watched as the running water carried away the tiny shards he hadn’t been able to pick up and only then did he sigh in relief.

With that taken care of, Sans turned to Papyrus, “You should be more care…ful…” he started, tone slightly scolding before he took in the other’s sweater and the just as surprised look on the other’s face. Ah, right. Not his Papyrus.

Sans quickly cleared his throat, face warming up with a slight blue as embarrassment caught up to him. Using that tone of voice on this other Papyrus, he had over stepped his bounds. Slowly he stuffed his hands into his pockets, scratching absently at the fuzzy material inside his pockets.

“S-Sorry, I…” Sans trailed off, unable to really say much else. This Papyrus knew that he wasn’t his Sans, so what was the point in telling him, ‘sorry, I thought you were my brother for a moment’? There was no point and it would only make things more awkward so instead, Sans just shut his mouth and stood awkwardly by the sink.

Papyrus nodded slowly, running a hand at the base of his neck, “It’s…it’s alright. And Um…I could have taken care of the glass, you didn’t have to…” he started before quickly tacking on a ‘thank you’ at the end.

They stood awkwardly around the kitchen before finally, Papyrus stepped forward, leaning over Sans’ body as he turned the water off and grabbed a hand towel off the counter, shuffling backward just as quickly. He dried his hands, making sure he kept his eyes from meeting the Sans in front of him

Sans shrugged, turning to face the dark blue of the wall, “It really was no problem. Er, better than cutting yourself, y’know?”

“You could have just as easily got cut…”Papyrus muttered, holding the towel closer to his chest, fingers wringing at the lightly, dampened cloth.

The smaller skeleton swallowed and nodded absently, the other’s words very similar to what his own Papyrus would have said, albeit less scolding. God he missed the scolding.

“Yeah, well…” he didn’t really know where he was going from there. This was so weird. Awkward. Idle banter with his brother’s look alike and he had no clue what he was doing. He needed to be out there figuring out what he could do to get back to his own time line, not in here with stagnant conversation.

Papyrus only remained quiet after that before finally moving from his place by the doorway and moved to start washing the counters, pausing only after the other’s previous words caught up to him.

“Wait…Y-You went to Grillby’s?” Papyrus voiced, pitch a little more worried, almost panicked.

Sans motioned to leave the kitchen only to turn around, eyes looking at the floor rather than the taller skeleton. What was he supposed to say to that? Thinking back on it now, Papyrus probably hadn’t wanted him to leave the house. Everyone around here knew that Sans was dead, _or maybe not?_ He recalled Grillby being more concerned about him than seeing someone supposedly back from the grave.

“Sorry…” What else was he supposed to say?

Papyrus hunched over the counter, fingers digging into his sweater as he tried to regulate his breathing. Everyone thought that Sans was gone. That had _left_ to do something important for the kingdom. Or whatever their imagination fed them. If Sans went to Grillby’s, then the busy restaurant was sure to have had people see him and they would think that he had returned. They would expect Sans to talk to them and spend time with them. To have the same memories that they had.

There was no way that this Sans could pass as his brother. They were so different.

“I…I need to sit down…”Papyrus muttered, stumbling back and made his way to the sofa. Sans gnawed at his teeth, instinct wanting him to help Papyrus to the couch, but he kept his hands to himself.  Awkwardly, he followed the taller skeleton.

Sans stood by uncomfortably, fingers tugging at the fleece inside his pockets as he ached for a bottle of ketchup, something to calm his nerves. Things were going to get messy, he knew that much. He needed to figure something out. He needed to get back to his own timeline.

Then he remembered. He’s _Sans_. The Sans in this time line was gone, but he too was _Sans_. That meant that he had to have a secret lab too, right? He had to have a key somewhere to the lab in the basement lying around somewhere. He just had to find this Sans’ key and get into the lab. If he was lucky, this Sans would have a completed time machine built.

This was going to be _so much easier_ than he had thought. He just had to deal with this craziness until he could find it.

The sudden hitching breaths coming from the sofa caught Sans’ attention, his sockets going wide as he recognized that sound anywhere. Papyrus was trying not to cry. Failing, but still trying. _Shit_.

Sans made his way to the couch, standing in front of it awkwardly before rubbing his forearm, confused about what to do. He couldn’t very well hug this Papyrus to comfort him. It would just be weird; instead, he glanced to the side, eyes catching on the unfed pet rock.

“H-hey, um…Don’t cry, okay? I shouldn’t have left, but…” Sans pressed a hand to his face, rubbing at it in frustration. He had no clue what he was doing and while this wasn’t his Papyrus, he didn’t exactly want to upset the guy any more than he would have wanted to hurt his own brother. He wasn’t too good at conflict for someone who had tried to kill a human, possibly more than once.

“I needed someone to talk to and in my time line, Grillby was… he was often the one to listen to all the problems I had. I…”

“Grillby and my brother were dating in this time line, Sans! That was possibly one of the worst possible things you would have done and – oh god… I hope Grillby is okay!” Papyrus cried out, hands on his skull, frantically rubbing his fingertips into bone. How in the Underground was he supposed to fix this? How was he supposed to explain away Sans lack of memories of everyone and the entire fact that now Grillby had to be suspicious as hell. He knew Grillby would have tried to kiss Sans and not knowing that they were a couple in this time line…

“O-Oh…”

Sans quickly looked away, a hand rubbing at the back of his neck as he flushed in shame again. Yeah. He had definitely missed up big time, but how was he supposed to know that Sans and Grillby were a thing in this timeline? Now the hurt and confused expression on Grillby’s face and the odd behavior made a lot more sense.  

He supposed he should have known better than to go out in public when everyone thought he was dead. That was just common sense.

“Hey, just…Calm down, okay? We’ll figure this out,” Sans soothed, voice lowering to the soft voice he used with his own brother. This was Papyrus too; it had to work the same, right? Then again, there were already so many differences between his and this time line. For all he knew, this would make things worse.

Thankfully, Papyrus gradually removed his hands from his head and nodded; trying to take in deep breathes, but only managed to take a few drags before he had to fight off a few hiccups.

“Y-Yeah… We’ll figure things out. M-Make up a story or something…” Papyrus crossed his arms, hugging himself as he rubbed along his forearms, trying to sooth himself. He hated lying, but once again, he found himself having to make things up in order to protect what fragile stability he had managed to make for himself over the last year and a half.

Sand took a shaky breath, hearing Papyrus planning a lie was almost sickening. His Papyrus would have never lies unless it was to help someone, and even still that was a stretch. To casually think about lying and on such a large scale? Sans shook his head, not liking the idea in the least.

“I could just, stay out of everyone’s sight. I already have an idea to get back to my own timeline, so…We really don’t have to make up anything. I can just find somewhere to hide during the day,” Sans offered, stuffing his hands back in his pockets, brushing fingertips along Papyrus’ scarf as he did so, needing the bit of comfort it presented him.

Papyrus furrowed his brow, confusion in his eyes as he finally looked toward Sans. An idea? Leave? He inhaled shakily, nodding silently. For whatever reason, he never actually thought about this Sans leaving. Didn’t think it was a possibility and just assumed that Sans was stuck here now. But if he could just…leave… The taller skeleton hugged himself tighter, unsure exactly how he felt about that.

On the right hand, he wouldn’t have a visual reminded of his brother around. He wouldn’t have to deal with the pain of seeing the other skeleton around and knowing that he wasn’t really his brother. He could go back to trying to move on. Yet on the left, he would be alone again. He would have to watch as, yet again, Sans left his life, never to return.

Papyrus swallowed thickly, letting his eyes slide to the floor as he mulled it over. He already knew that somehow, he was going to lose all the people he cared about in his life. Sans was gone. Grillby had distanced himself from him, yet still remained close to some degree. They didn’t hang out as much as they used to since Sans had left. Undyne was still around, but he knew it was a matter of time before she left him too, too tired of having to deal with this rut he was in.

He wouldn’t even blame her either. Most days he didn’t even want to be around himself. How could he expect her to want to spend time with him when he couldn’t even stand it?

The younger skeleton decided it was best to leave that topic alone for now and move on to the other thing that Sans brought up.

“You can just stay here. I mean, S-Sans’ room is unused and the couch is always open. There’s no way I could in good conscious let you sleep outside or anything. That’s just wrong. No one should sleep out in the cold,” he explained, not wanting to mention the very real chance that Sans could die out there too. Even though they couldn’t feel temperature quite the same way that other monsters did, it was still a very real threat. They still could feel the cold working into their bones. They could still die from it. Papyrus quickly stomped the thought down and stood up, hands on his hips, yet the proud moved wasn’t backed up with the usual strong arch of his spine or the mischief in his eyes.

“I insist you stay here! It’s better for the both of us. I don’t have to worry about you wandering around without food or shelter and you get a place to sleep and get some food. It’s a win-win situation!” His voice was almost strong enough to mimic his older self. Papyrus smiled wryly at the thought. Perhaps he should practice that, maybe he could convince himself that he really was okay and it would become true one day. Isn’t that what Alphys did after all?

Sans shivered at the other’s voice and pose. It looked and sounded so familiar yet not. His soul flickered in his chest before he clamped it down, pushing it to the back of his chest. _Not my brother_ … he told himself before twitching his mouth, unsure what to say to the other skeleton’s offer.

“I…I suppose that…that’s okay, but are you sure? I won’t be a burden will I? I mean…The-the reminders…” Sans replied, hunching down in his hoodie once more, self-conscious of the fact he had to bring it up. Fortunately, or unfortunately rather, Papyrus would understand what he meant.

Slowly, Papyrus nodded, his hands slipping from his hips before he forces himself to keep them in place, to stand a little taller, to look a little surer of himself.

“Perfectly sure! You won’t be a burden and…I… I will deal with the reminders. We have been so far, haven’t we?” he spoke, his voice hushing as he slouched one again. The reminders were just something that he was going to have to live with until Sans left.

Left…he still hadn’t decided what he felt about that.

Sans nodded, eyes averting to stare at the carpet once more, “y-yeah…”

Papyrus gave a small hum before turning his attention to the wall, noticing the time. It was late. Very late and he would normally be in bed by now. Maybe not asleep but wrapped up in his sheets. He supposed it was about time to go to bed. Besides the day had worn him out and he was certain Sans had to be tired too. He had napped, but apparently he had also left/ Who knew how many naps he had been able to fit into the day. Or even if this Sans napped like his Sans did.

“A-Anyway, it’s almost three in the morning... I should probably head to bed. S-Sentry duty in the morning and all…”he informed, rubbing at his arm before slowly, moving away from the couch and toward the stairs.

Sans nodded, but remained where he had been standing, toes curling into the soft carpet. He idly missed his slippers.

Papyrus gave one last glance toward Sans before making his way up the stairs, easing his door open and quickly shut it behind him. The skeleton let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had bene holding and let himself drift toward his bed, easing himself into the mattress of the bright blue, race car bed. He took a shuddery breath and closed his eyes, fingers digging into his brother’s pink sweater he wore.

Downstairs, Sans let out a sign before letting himself sink to the floor, not having the energy to climb back onto the couch. He could sleep anywhere and well, right now the floor was as good a place as any and frankly, he just wanted to fall asleep so he didn’t have to think about the mess that he was in or be haunted by the thoughts of his brother. 

Sans curled up on his side, moving his hand under the scarf , fingers brushing the smooth, silky surface of the bag around his neck before nuzzling into the knit scarf around his neck, inhaling the lingering scent of his brother, “goodnight, Paps…” he muttered before the lights of his eyes faded to closing, empty sockets.

 


	5. Eggs

 

Again, Sans awoke to the sound of pans clanging in the kitchen.

Instead of getting up immediately, the smaller skeleton curled into himself, his spine pressing uncomfortably into the side of the couch. He lay like that for several minutes before he rolled over, wanting the pressure off his spine. He stared at the stitching of the sofa before letting out a soft sigh.

This wasn’t working.

Sans rolled back around, pulling his legs to closer before pushing himself into a sitting position. He rubbed absently at his eye sockets as he looked around the room. Nothing much had changed. There was still the pile of socks in the corner of the room and the television was turned off. The smell of something being cooked wafted through the living room.

He didn’t recognize what it was, all that he knew was that it wasn’t spaghetti and that’s all that really mattered. Dropping his hand to his side, Sans forced himself to his feet, shirt askew on his frame as he made his way to the kitchen, fingers idly trying to get his clothes back in a comfortable position.

Papyrus stood at the stove a spatula in hand, flipping some strange white thing that Sans still couldn’t recognize from the angle he was standing.  After a moment of watching, the skeleton quickly pinpointed it as eggs. He hadn’t had any of those in a while. Not since he had made a cake for his own Papyrus’ birthday several years ago. It had ended pretty well considering he hadn’t had any icing.

 

_“Okay, it’s ready, Paps,” Sans called out, his dulcet voice calling out from the kitchen as he dusted his hands off on his brother’s apron that was cinched around his frame. Flour was littering the counters, floors, and most of the apron. Some of the powder sticking to the ends of his sleeves since he hadn’t bothered to remove his jacket._

_Excitedly, the bundle of energy that was Papyrus bounded into the room, eyes squinting at the mess in the kitchen. His hands already on their way to Papyrus’ hips as he was going to scold his older brother for the mess that had been made of the kitchen, but when his eyes landed on the white and chocolate swirled concoction on the counter, they widened once again._

_“Is this that cake thing you had mentioned the other night?” the younger brother asked, voice curious but still laced with his delight. He had never had a cake before._

_Papyrus made his way to the counter and leaned over, pressing his face close to the pastry but not enough to touch it and inhaled the scent. It was fragrant, but not powerful like his spaghetti was. It smelled sweet too!_

_The younger skeleton leaned back up, a grin plastered over his face as Sans sidled up next to him, “are you just going to smell it or would you like to actually eat it?” The teasing tone pronounced in the smaller skeleton’s words and frame._

_Papyrus gently nudged his brother before stepping away from the counter, making his way over to the wall where they kept their knives before Sans gave a soft, ‘tsk tsk’ sound. He turned around, quirking a brow at the other’s behavior, “What is it Sans? We can’t eat the cake unless I cut it first!”_

_Sans only grinned his usual grin, pulling a knife from_ wherever _he had managed to stash it before casually waving it, “no go, bro. It’s your birthday, go sit down. Watch some tv, I’ve got it handled.”_

_The taller skeleton furrowed his brow, a little taken aback by his brother’s tone,” Are you sure, Sans? It’s really not a problem.”_

_Once again, Sans wave him off, setting the knife down before shoving at his brother’s hips to get him in motion, “I’m sure. Go. Relax and I’ll bring it to you once I’ve got it cut._ Piece of cake _,” he purred, watching as Papyrus’ face heated up from the terrible pun._

 _Quickly, the younger brother swatted Sans’ hands away, legs already carrying him to the couch, “Must you always come up with a pun for everything? That one was_ horrible _!” Papyrus whined as he plopped himself onto the couch and made himself comfortable._

_Sans chuckled from the kitchen as he picked up the knife and began cutting into the cake, “C’mon, bro. I know you like them, you’re just jealous you didn’t think of it first!” He laughed even more as he heard Papyrus muttering an ‘of course’ under his breath._

_With the cake cut and put on little saucers, Sans brought the plates back to the couch, handing Papyrus his plate before settling next to him. A small grin was on Sans’ face before he leaned back into the couch, eyes watching his younger brother attentively._

_“I would have put candles and icing on it if we had any,” the smaller skeleton informed, felling a little nervous now. His brother deserved the best and he was already starting to doubt himself. This wasn’t birthday cake if it didn’t have frosting and candles._

_“Nonsense! Do you know how unhealthy frosting is? Sugary and delicious, yes, but not so good for the bones,” Papyrus reassured, cutting a piece off his cake before gently spearing it and put it in his mouth. His eyes widened and he quickly swallowed the food, his grin all the more pronounced._

_“This is good!  Sweet, but not overly so!” Papyrus quickly stuffed more of the dessert into his mouth, chewing it and swallowing it down just as fast as he could manage. Sans only chuckled as he leaned back, taking a bite of his own cake. He supposed it wasn’t too bad. He still thought the frosting would have been better, but well. At least Papyrus seemed content. That’s all that mattered._

_Papyrus quickly finished his cake and Sans couldn’t help laugh at how his brother was already looking toward the kitchen, obviously wanting another piece already. He could practically see the internal debate of whether it was a good idea or not in those eyes of his. Rolling his own eyes, Sans pushed his plate into his brother’s hands, still holding half his slice on it._

_“Take mine. I can tell you’re trying to reason a way to allow yourself another piece,” Sans smiled, mouth twitching upward at the light that spread across his siblings’ face._

_“But, Sans…”_

_“We don’t have butts, bro. Skeletons, remember?” He practically beamed at the sound of outrage from his brother’s mouth._

_“Really though, I’m full of cake. Do you know how much batter I snacked on while making that?” Sans purred before making his way to the kitchen, taking Papyrus’ empty plate and fork with him. He might as well clean the kitchen while he was at it, give his bro a day off._

_Papyrus finally nodded, taking a bite of the offered cake only to furrow his brow, “where ae you going?” Sans shrugged, pausing in the doorway to the kitchen._

_“Thought I could clean up a bit, I sure made a mess in here.”_

_“I can take care of it Sans. You already made me this excellent birthday cake, you don’t have to—“_

_“Nope, seriously. I got it. Anything for the birthday bro, right?” Sans voiced, putting the plate into the sink and went to get the small hand-held broom to clean off the mountain of flour that dusted the counters._

_Sans had managed to clean off one of the counters before Papyrus came into the kitchen, set his plate in the sink and slipped his arms around him. Sans froze, face warming up as his brother hugged him tightly, buried his face into his neck and squeezed._

_“Th-Thanks, Sans. You’re the best brother I could ask for…”_

_Sans swallowed thickly before forcing out a chuckle, leaning into his brother’s arms, letting himself indulge for a moment._

_“Heh…Love you too, Paps…”_

“Sans!”

Sans jumped, eyes wide as he took in a worried Papyrus. His soul throbbed painfully in his chest and he raised a hand to rub at his sternum. Eyes still fixed on his brother’s look-alike, Sans swallowed the lump in his throat before quickly looking away.

“Heh… Sorry I...I just kind of…”

Papyrus slowly relaxed, shoulders relaxing as he looked away, giving Sans a bit of privacy. He could tell he had remembered something, probably about his own Papyrus considering the way he rubbed at his sternum. If this Sans was anything like him and his own Sans, it was a self-soothing gesture.

“It’s alright, Sans…I…Breakfast is done,” he informed, shifting in his shoes as he held onto the plate he had intended to give to Sans.

Once again, the small skeleton had startled him, not exacting him to be standing in the kitchen just staring off into the wall. Of course, Papyrus knew now that he had been staring off into his own mind. He couldn’t exactly fault him for that. Papyrus had found himself doing the exact same for so long that it was just a part of him now.

Shaking the thoughts away, Papyrus motioned for the kitchen table and sat the plate down, “A-anyway…I have to go take care of some things. If…If anyone comes by, please…don’t—”

“I got it. Sorry again... for that big mess up…” Sans replied, still standing in the frame of the kitchen despite the fact that Papyrus had already put his plate down and was heading toward the door.

Papyrus paused, but nodded, his hand on the doorknob, “It’s okay, Sans. I…I probably would have done the same thing. I don’t blame you,” he replied, voice hushed before opening the door and closing it with a quiet click.

Sans let out a breath he hadn’t been aware he had been holding, body slumping a bit as, finally, he let his legs carry him to the table.

Eggs and pan-fried toast sat on the plate, the yolks perfectly intact while the toast had no sign of burning.  Sans eyed the food for a moment before he sat down at the table. It certainly smelled good and Papyrus had even used butter for the toast instead of oil. Salt and pepper were sprinkled across the eggs. Over all it was a regular breakfast, for those who hadn’t gotten used to spaghetti every morning.

Another sigh left the skeleton’s mouth before his picked up the fork and started cutting in on the egg whites. They tasted really good as well. Far better than he could have managed. Often when he had made eggs when his Papyrus was younger, they would either have the yolks partially cooked or the white not entirely finished. That had been so many years ago though.

Silently, Sans finished up his breakfast and pushed himself from the chair.  Since he wasn’t supposed to leave the house and he had talked to Grillby recently, he really didn’t have anything better to do, so Sans picked up his dishes and made his way to the sink.

As he had suspected, he couldn’t quite reach, but stashed away under the counter was a small foot stool and Sans pulled it out. With that, he could reach the sink and so he turned on the faucet and began washing his dishes. Once again, he noticed that Papyrus hadn’t eaten anything.

On one hand, it really wasn’t his business. Perhaps this Papyrus just wasn’t one to eat breakfast. Maybe it was just a normal thing for him to skip the meal, but on the other hand, Sans was so used to his own Papyrus making a big deal about health and how ‘breakfast was the most important meal of the day”.

He couldn’t help but worry for this Papyrus. Skipping meals was never a good idea and from the looks of it, Papyrus hadn’t been in the swing of making breakfast at all for a while. Which meant that he had been waking up early to feed Sans before he left.

Sans didn’t really know what to think about that.

It was so undeniably _Papyrus_ of him to go out of his way to help someone, even a stranger such as him. Not to mention how Papyrus had allowed him to stay here; to force himself to deal with the image of his brother walking around despite the fact that his Sans had been gone for over a year.  It was hard on him just seeing this Papyrus when he had just lost his brother.

Sans swallowed down the forming lump in his throat.

But Papyrus had been without his Sans for a year and a half. Sans couldn’t help but wonder what Papyrus had been going through. Had he waited all day for his brother to return only to find out later that he was dead? No, he said he had seen Sans die, hadn’t he?

He couldn’t imagine the horror of seeing his Papyrus die. But had he have been there, perhaps he would have been able to stop the human before they had gained enough LOVE to really make it far. Even still, the human had determination. They had the resets. Sans was sure that even if he had been there, that the human would just reset every time he killed them until finally, they would defeat him. Just like they had in the Judgement Hall.

Had Papyrus been able to put the death of his brother behind him? Had Papyrus been in the process of moving on when he had arrived? Sans didn’t know, but it was obvious that Papyrus was still having trouble.

The pile of socks against the wall. The unfed rock. The permanently turned off tv. The spotlessness of the other Sans’ room—not even the self-sustaining tornado had been there. He had even noticed that Papyrus’ mailbox was the one that was full now while Sans’ was the empty one.

What other changes would he find himself noticing as he remained in this time line? Frankly, Sans was a little afraid to find out.

Sans gently shook off the fork and the plate, set them aside in the drying rack on the side of the sink, and turned off the water one he was finished cleaning his dishes. Another sigh left him as he stood at the counter.

He needed to find the key to the lab. If he was going to get back to his own time line, then he was going to have to get into the basement and see what Sans from this time line had managed to build. With any luck he had completed it and Sans could just use it and be gone. Even still, he felt a little guilty.

This Papyrus was still recovering from the loss of his brother. But him? Papyrus wasn’t dead. Not really. Not permanently. All he had to do if get to his own timeline and reset it and everything was going to be fine. Everything _was_ fine.

Sans quickly turned on his heels and slipped out of the kitchen and made his way up the stairs and to the other Sans’ room. He almost felt bad about intruding on the space, but Papyrus had brought him in here once. Had told him to make himself at home. Besides getting back to his own timeline was more important than stepping on a few toes, right?

Opening the door, the bedroom was just as he had left it yesterday morning. The mug of now-cold tea the only thing out of place in the otherwise spotless room. There was no garbage or dirty clothes on the floor. The treadmill was up against the wall, which for him, was also the norm except that it wasn’t permanently turned on. The bed was made, mostly. At least it wasn’t a pile of rolled up sheets and stained bedding as his own bed had been until Papyrus came by and cleaned everything up.

Sans let himself in the room and made his way to where he had hidden his own lab key, the top drawer of the end table. While there were a few things different in it than his own, mostly everything was the same: loose sticky notes, a few pens, letters from Papyrus addressed to Santa. Sans frowned at that. This Papyrus must have known that his Sans was actually Santa by this point. He swallowed down the uneasiness that that realization had brought and quickly dug further back into the drawer.

Nothing. A few candy wrappers but otherwise nothing else of note.

Alright, the bottom drawer then.

Digging into the second drawer didn’t bring forth the key either. More loose papers, a few joke books and a dirty sock that had long since lost its odor.

With a huff, Sans closed the drawers and made his way to the dresser. Perhaps this Sans had hid it in his sock drawer or something. He supposed that made sense just as much as the end table. Probably an even better hiding spot now that he thought about it.

Opening the first draw, nothing was of note there. T-shirts all piled upon one another, blacks, blues, a few T’s with both text and visual puns on them. Oddly enough, a few of them were ones he had back in his own timeline. Guilt hit him when he bypassed the ‘punsexual’ shirt without as much as a snicker. Still no key.

The second drawer came back empty as well. Neither the third nor the fourth having any better luck. With a groan, Sans palmed his face, rubbing at the tension that was building along the curve of his nose and wrapped around the side of his head, making the area that was cracked ache.

“Where in the Underground could he have put it?” Sans grumbled as he released his face and dropped his hands back to his side. Where else would he put it? Sans looked around and made his way to the treadmill and shoved it aside, peeking under the base only to come back with nothing.

Sans glanced toward the bed and let out a sigh as he made his way toward it. Maybe it would be under the mattress. He lifted that up too, letting the blanket fall to the floor. His mouth twitched in frustration as, once again, the key wasn’t anywhere to be found.

Standing back up, Sans rubbed at his nose again, a little aggravated that this Sans had a much better eye for hiding things than he did. He probably would have been impressed had the fact of the matter been he needed the key to get back to his brother.

With a sigh, Sans grabbed the mug from the end table and made his way back downstairs, glancing toward Papyrus’ room before heading down and back to the kitchen. _Might as well wash this too,_ he thought before turning the water back on.

With that cleaned, the chubby skeleton put it aside on the rack with the plate and fork, his mind still trying to think up locations that the other Sans could have put the key to the lab. With no other serious ideas, Sans started opening and closing drawer in the kitchen. Nothing.

The living room bore no fruits of for his labor either. The sofa had a few loose coins and a rubber bouncy ball, but otherwise nothing of interest. The table had nothing on it other than a vase of plastic flowers. He had dumped that and the key hadn’t been in there either.

The picture frames that decorated the walls held no secrets behind them and certainly no keys. With nothing left to check, Sans finally decided to go outside to check if the door was somehow unlocked. He doubted Sans—or any sensible person for that matter, would leave a secret laboratory unlocked, but perhaps he had forgotten?

Sans opened to door and peeked out, making sure there were no other monsters milling about before slipping outside, clicking the door shut behind him and quickly edged his way along the side of the house.

Instead of the shorter distance, just going passed the mailboxes and following the side of the house, he turned as if he was going to head to Waterfall before following the opposite side of the house, sneaking around the back of the building before finally, making his way to the somewhat hidden door.

With bated breath, Sans put his hand on the door knob and turned.

Nothing. Not so much as a click or a stuck knob. Just a door handle that wouldn’t go. Sand twisted again. Nothing. Again. _Still_ nothing.

With a growl, Sans pulled his hand back, fist clenched before he threw it at the metal door. He hissed at the nasty sound that came from his hand and brought the injured hand to his chest. Sans continued to glare at the door before finally glancing down to his hand to check the damage.

Nothing was broken, thankfully, but he did scrape up his knuckles, a light dusting of bone on his hand. Sans’ eyes widened before he quickly wiped the offending powder onto his shorts and dusted them off as well.

After standing out in the cold, allowing himself a little time to calm down, Sans finally forced himself back into motion. Slowly, he snuck around the back of the house and slipped into the building once he made sure no one was around. With that out of the way, he closed the door and leaned against the cool wood. Sans let himself slide down the surface of the door and curled upon himself; his knees brought up tight against his chest as he flipped the hood over his head. He buried his face into his brother’s scarf.

He couldn’t fathom where else the Sans could have put the key, but he wasn’t going to give up. Sans knew that he could find it, was sure that he could. _Positive._ He just needed a nap first, sleep on it and his mind would surely piece something together. That was the only option because he sure as hell wasn’t going to give up on Papyrus.

 


	6. Denial

 

 

Papyrus had still not returned when Sans woke up again. The skeleton picked himself from the floor, rubbing at the sore joints of his bones from sleeping in such an uncomfortable position and quickly set into motion.

He hadn’t thought of it before, but after the nap, a great idea on his part, Sans pieced some things together.

Sans’ room was cleaned, quite thoroughly actually. It was very likely that while cleaning the other him’s room, Papyrus could have found the key. And even though his brother was keen on throwing away things that could even slightly be misconstrued as garbage, a key would be something that he would keep around. So, this Papyrus, hopefully had that in common with his brother.

The small skeleton stretched, letting little moans leave his lips as his bones popped. Relaxing, Sans turned his attention back to the task at hand. He needed that key and there was only one place he had yet to check.

Sans made his way to the stairs, hopping them two at a time before stopping in front of Papyrus’ bedroom. A small frown twitched at his mouth as Sans noticed how, instead of the door being covered in flowers, cute animal stickers, and a sign that read ‘Papyrus Only!!!’ it was covered in stickers of little white dots, a few of those phosphorescent, plastic stars, and a doodled sign with “Knock Before Entering”.

Ignoring the sign since there really was no reason for it given that Papyrus wasn’t home and he wasn’t exactly going in with the best of intentions, Sans simply twisted the knob, letting himself in.

Upon entering, Sans had to stop, a hand grasping at his scarf as he struggled to catch his breath. He had hoped that at least the inside of the room would be completely different. At the very least, a weird rearrangement like it had been at Grillby’s but everything was practically identical as his own Papyrus’ room.

The desk with the computer in the corner, the closet, the bookshelf on the back wall. The collection of action figures on the table., all likely from his own Sans.  There was even a box of bones stacked beside the bookshelf.

There were only a few differences between his and this Papyrus’ rooms. The most noticeable being the fact that the normally red race car bed was spray painted a shiny, metallic blue; a red jacket tossed on top of it.

The rug was also different, instead of little flowers decorating it, it was a dark violet with a space theme. Stars and planets sewn into the fabric like an afterthought. More of those plastic stars decorated the walls and ceiling around Papyrus’ bed and the end table next to the bed was littered with an assortment of things.

Sans rubbed at his eye sockets, taking a deep but shaky breath before pushing himself deeper in to the room. He would have to deal with the overwhelming nostalgia and just get the search over with. The faster he found the key, the faster he could get out of the room and back to his own time line.

With one last exhale, Sans made his way to the most obvious place, the end table, and quickly looked over the contents on the surface. 

Other than a few loose pieces of gold, a box of tissue paper and an overturned picture frame, there wasn’t anything of value. Curiously, Sans picked up the picture frame and looked at the photo on the other side.

Sans held his breath as he looked upon the image of Papyrus and his Sans standing in the middle of Grillby’s. The brothers looked positively happy; Papyrus’ grin was next to bursting, his face lightly tinged with an obvious orange glow as his skull was pressed against his Sans’. The smaller skeleton was held in his younger brother’s arms, his own grin wide and genuine even with the sleepy droop of his eyes. His cheek bones a soft blue. In the background, Grillby was washing or polishing the counters.

Slowly, Sans rubbed a thumb over the curve of Papyrus’ face, momentarily seeing his own brother in the other’s face. His soul pinched in his chest and Sans quickly set the picture back down, angling the frame so that Papyrus could see it easily from his bed when he laid down to sleep.

Returning to the search for the missing key, Sans opened the top drawer, face warming slightly in shame as this was the last thing he really wanted to do. He loved his own privacy and butting into someone else’s business settled horribly in his bones. Unfortunately, it was unavoidable if he wanted to get back to his brother and if that’s what it took, he’d gladly accept the guilt.

Just like in the other Sans’ room, there was nothing of importance. A book of Fluffy Bunny and the Circle of Friendship lay closed among a few pens and old tickets for an MTT concert starring Napstablook. _Weird, is Napstablook and Mettaton still close in this timeline?_ Sans thought as he closed the drawer, quickly discarding the thought as he moved on to the next drawer.

Inside was a box. A simple one with crayon and marker doodles across the top. Curiously, Sans crouched down and picked up the small thing. It was relatively heavy for such a small box and Sans had to control himself from shaking it guess what could be held inside it. Instead Sans unlatched the unlocked metal flap and flipped the lid.

Countless pieces of paper and pictures were neatly stacked within the wooden box. Despite his better judgement, Sans put the box onto his lap and took out a small stack, shivering as a coldness washed over him. The feeling of strange, yet oddly familiar hands resting on his shoulders but when he moved to brush it off, nothing was there.

Sans swallowed roughly before turning his attention back to the photos.

Most were relatively recent. Papyrus smiling, playing with various children around town. Papyrus picking flowers. Papyrus blushing as his Sans patted him on the back while Undyne had an arm wrapped around the taller skeleton, teeth flashing in amusement. After about a third of the stack was scanned, Sans’ eyes widened, finally realizing what looked off about Papyrus in these pictures.

Papyrus was always in his battle body, which really wasn’t the odd thing. His own brother did the same, after all. It was the fact that this Papyrus wore blue in most every picture while his Sans wore a red hoodie and a pink sweater. Sans grit his teeth, easing the pictures back in the box and clapped the lid closed.

The sound of a door shutting downstairs quickly snapped Sans from his thoughts, his foul stuttering frantically and he quickly shoved the box back into the drawer and slammed it closed. He jumped to his feet and made his way to the door only to freeze when he got to the door, Papyrus already making his way upstairs.

Papyrus eyes were on the ground before catching sight of Sans in his door way. He stopped, brows furrowed and shoulders tense. What was…?

“...Why are you in my room?”

Sans averted his gaze, eyes staring at the admittedly weird blue and lavender ripple carpet, anything to not look at the disappointment on Papyrus’ face.  It may not be his Papyrus, but it still had the same effect.

“I…”

What was he supposed to say to that? ‘Sorry, I was looking for this key to a secret lab beneath your house? You haven’t seen it? It’s a _secret_ lab for a reason’?

Not only would that be completely stupid, but he didn’t exactly want Papyrus to be questioning his motives or his own brother. It was more than obvious that this Papyrus held his brother in high esteem. Sans doubted he’d appreciate knowing that his Sans hid things from him,

Papyrus slowly made his way to the top of the stairs and to his door. He stood over Sans, brows still creased and waiting for an answer. Sans only slumped further under his scrutinizing gaze.

“You didn’t take anything, did you?”

Sans snapped his head up, eyes wide with disbelief, “N-No! I wouldn’t steal from you! I was just….I was just…” _What? Take a key from him and not return it? That’s the definition of stealing, you idiot…_

Papyrus let out a sigh and shook his head, turning away from the smaller skeleton and looked into his room, but not seeing anything out of place from where he was standing. He pushed his way passed Sans and looked further into his room. Nothing was out of place at a glance and he hadn’t made a mess of the room.

Seeing everything in order, Papyrus turned back to Sans, a frown upon his slender face, “I don’t know what you would be looking for in my room, but next time maybe just ask me? What is it you’re looking for?”

The smaller skeleton flinched back at the scolding tone in the other’s voice. _Too similar_ … He quickly shoved the thought aside, face warmed slightly, his eyes completely avoiding Papyrus’. Instead, Sans let his eyes drift to the other’s chest, the pink sweater around a much thinner frame than what it was used to.

_He wears Sans’ sweaters...l-like I wear Pap’s scarf…_

Sans stuffed his hands in his pockets, letting his eyes trail to the ground where he stood barefoot, his permanent grin slacking. “Ah…M-My slippers… I don’t remember seeing them since I woke up. Do you know where they went?”

Papyrus’ eyes widened, startled from the reply but quirked a brow. _He’s just looking for his slippers?_

“Well… You only had one on when I found you in the forest…I was a little more preoccupied with getting you inside where you wouldn’t freeze than with your state of dress at the time. It…It is entirely possible that it could be outside still but if so it’s likely unwearable by now,” Papyrus explained, fingers moving to fiddle with the collar of his brother’s sweater.

Sans slowly nodded, eyes flicking up to Papyrus’ a moment before turning away when he noticed that Papyrus had tipped his face closer to the collar of the shirt. _L-Like me and the scarf…_ Sans didn’t know exactly how he felt about these realizations.

This Papyrus may not be his brother, but he didn’t like the fact that the other was plagued with the same kind of demons that he was. Papyrus was just as broken and lost as he was and even though he had been trying to deal with his brother’s death longer than Sans had, he was still struggling with moving on. He was trying to accept it.

Realizing that he had gone too long without replying to Papyrus, Sans rubbed the back of his neck, eyes still downcast as he replied, “O-Oh… Thanks…for saving me, that is. That had to be hard for you…”

Papyrus’ eyes widened and he crossed his arms, turning his head to the side and stared at the wall, “Y-Yeah…N-Nyeh heh… Imagine my… _surprise_ when I found my brother face down in the snow when the last time I saw him he was d-d…dust…”

Sans nodded. He could vividly imagine the feeling. He had gone through the same motions to some degree. Except the relief he had felt was quickly snatched away. He supposed that was just about as bad as the horror of seeing his brother supposedly back from the grave after so long of trying to move on.

“Yeah…I can imagine…”

“What about you?”

“Huh?”

Papyrus shrugged, fingers tightening in the sleeves of the sweater, “I mean… You’re in this time line for a reason, right? I can tell that it wasn’t something you intentionally did since you’re trying to find a way to go back? I bet your brother misses you just as …as much as you miss him…”

Sans quickly closed his eyes, curling in on himself at the other’s words, “I…He…” Sans found his fingers in his brother’s scarf, tugging at the soft material as he tried to remain on his feet. He wanted to sleep again, but he had just woke up about half an hour ago. He really needed to find that key if he was going to get back to his own time line.

Papyrus was quiet for several long minutes before he dropped his arms to his side and sighed, reading so much of himself in the other’s posture.

The way that Sans diminished himself into an even smaller space. The frantic grip on the scarf that he could only imagine belonging to Sans’ own Papyrus considering he had a similar one in blue. How Sans closed himself away. He had done the exact same things when he had first lost his brother. He was still trying to cope and hadn’t been able to let go of the sweater his Sans made a habit of wearing.

“Your brother… Your Papyrus…He died too, didn’t he?”

Sans jolted, stumbling back, eye sockets blown wide, “NO! Papyrus is not d-dead! I just… It’ll be okay, he’ll be okay! I just need—! I just need to get back to my own time line and….And everything will be okay! I’ll reset everything and he’ll be okay. Everyone will be okay!” He shouted, his hand tightened into the scarf, breaths heavy as he shook from his place in the hall.

Papyrus had flinched back from the other’s outburst only to calm down as he realized what was going on.

Denial.

Sans was still in denial over his Papyrus’ death. He knew all too well what that was like, but he had learned the hard way that living in the past didn’t help anyone. He may still miss Sans and struggle with dealing with his absence, but he was in such a better place now that he had stopped hoping that one day his brother was going to return. That Sans really was gone and there was no way his brother was going to come back.

Thanks to Undyne, he had been able to heal.

 He no longer cried out in the dead of night every night. He still had nightmares, probably would for the rest of his life, but he had actually started being able to get real sleep again. He was now capable of leaving the house.  Capable of interacting with old friends again, even if it was only in small bursts.  He no longer locked himself in the room.

Sure, he still had moments of weakness. The pile of socks in the living room floor just one of the many things he knew he had been unable to control. With them there, he was just a little more relieved, even if it brought back painful memories. But just because they were painful didn’t mean that they weren’t good.

Papyrus sighed, swallowing heavily before taking a step toward Sans, making sure his movements were slow just like Undyne had been with him. Once he was a few feet away from the smaller skeleton, Papyrus dropped to his knees, hurt in his soul at seeing the other in so much pain. Even though it wasn’t his Sans, this Sans was still another person worthy of care and Papyrus had always hated seeing someone so lost and broken.

Slowly, Papyrus opened his arms, softening his features, trying to put on a small smile for the other skeleton.

Sans’ eyes widened further, body trembling as he tried to keep the tears that threatened to spill in check. His mouth twitched into a pathetic smile, unable to help himself as he stumbled forward, his own hands moving to cling to Papyrus as he buried his head into the other’s sweater and the scarf around his own neck.

Papyrus quickly wrapped his arms around Sans, letting his own head fall onto the other’s shoulder, tears peeking at the corner of his own eyes before they slipped down his cheekbones. Silently, the two held each other as their bodies shook, bones rattling as they shared their grief.


	7. Curious

 

 

The two skeletons held each other; Sans’ fingers curled into the back of Papyrus’ sweater, Papyrus’  holding onto the smaller skeleton, slowly rubbing soothing circles into the other’s shoulder blades. Papyrus’ nuzzled in closer to Sans’ skull, breathing deeply as tried to calm himself down.

Sans on the other hand only shifted closer, letting his head lull to the side of the other’s warmth, eyes closed and edged in red from the shedding of tears. They sat there for a long while before Papyrus shifted, pulling away only to find himself captured by the smaller skeleton. Curiosity lit the younger skeleton’s face as he glanced to the side, noticing that sometime during their moment of weakness, Sans had managed to fall asleep.

Papyrus let out a small huff of amusement. _Just like my own Sans…_ he thought, smile smoothing out but just as present as before. He, once again, found that he didn’t know what to think about this. Somehow the similarities didn’t seem quite as bad as they had before. It was obvious that this Sans needed him, even if he was just a momentary replacement for his own Papyrus.

The taller skeleton shifted again, maneuvering the slumbering weight of Sans to his hip, wincing a little at the pressure on the hidden bone.  Slowly, Papyrus eased himself onto his feet, his slender arms still holding Sans close to him, absently rubbing at the other’s shoulders and spine.

Sans, seemingly sensing the other’s intentions only curled up more, his legs wrapping around Papyrus’ waist, “…Paps…?” he grumbled quietly in his sleep.  Papyrus only smiled more at the other’s sluggish tone, amused that even in completely different time lines Sans could be such a sleepy head. Frankly, he was a little impressed that the skeleton had the capacity to sleep just about anywhere. He, himself, could hardly get to sleep in his own bed, let alone sitting at a sentry station, the floor, or even on his feet.

With a small sigh, Papyrus took Sans down the hall to where his brother’s room was. Seeing that the room wasn’t as neat as it was before, but not a completely mess, Papyrus made his way to his brother’s bed and gently laid Sans down on the mattress. A short chuckle left him as he had to climb onto the bed and lean over the smaller skeleton so that Sans didn’t fall to the ground as he was forced to unlatch Sans’ arms and legs from his hips and shoulders.

With Sans no longer clinging to him, Papyrus removed himself from the bed and quickly tucked the other into bed. Papyrus gave the other another smile, boney digits brushing along the soft curve of the other’s skull, eyes half lidded and face tinted  orange. Immediately he caught himself and quickly left the room, gently shutting the door behind him and turned off the light that Sans must have left on.

Papyrus stood outside the door for a moment, his eyes closed, “Why did I even do that? That’s not Sans—well, it _is_ , but not my Sans!” he told himself, a hand moving up to palm his face, a small groan leaving his teeth. This Sans may look similar to his brother—other than the strange crack along the smaller skeleton’s skull and the weird choice in clothing—but he still wasn’t the same person. Not really.

They didn’t have the same memories, the same experiences, and the ones that were similar weren’t shared between them. Why had he treated this Sans the way he would have his own brother?

Shaking his head, Papyrus quickly made his way down stairs. With Sans asleep upstairs, he needed to get some cleaning done. Papyrus was sure that Sans had left the dishes out and he remembered a few things slightly out of place when he entered the house. Walking by, Papyrus straightened a few things that seemed moved, brows furrowing at all the small differences in location as if Sans had tried to make it seem like he hadn’t moved anything.

 _Was he really just looking for his slippers?_ The Skeleton contemplated, finally moving to the kitchen only to be met with a pretty clean room. The dishes from this morning was cleaned and stacked to the side. Even the mug he had tea the night he had found Sans was cleaned and set to dry.

Papyrus gave a small smile, at least he had less work to do tonight. He put up the clean dishes and let out a sigh, his fingers brushing across the pink sweater that fit a little loose around his frame. His eyes softened and found himself lost in thought.

Sans, though different than his own Sans, wasn’t too terrible to have around. He had a lot of similarities between his own Sans, mostly looks. But he also appeared to help around the house a little; out of thanks for habit, Papyrus didn’t know. He also slept a lot and drifted off easily enough. Both similar to his own Sans.

But he was also different. He was less open than his own brother. He kept things hidden away, but he had answered truthfully when prompted about what happened to his own Papyrus. Sort of.

Papyrus pressed his teeth together. He did doubt that Sans had been telling the truth about searching for his slippers though. The way that Sans had stuttered and shrunk away when he had asked seemed proof enough that the other was lying, but Papyrus couldn’t figure out what he would have been lying about. Nothing was out of place in his room, not that he had noticed with a glance anyway.

Deciding to put cleaning off until later—he had tomorrow off from work and could clean the entire day, Papyrus made his way back up to his room. Curious what would be moved about now that he had more time to look things over. He really hoped that the slumbering skeleton hadn’t stolen anything. He didn’t know exactly what he would do id he had.

Papyrus pushed open his bedroom door, closing it gently behind him before looking over the room again. Once again, nothing was really out of place. Most of the room looked as if Sans had just walked in and walked out, not searching for anything. The taller skeleton continued to scan the room before his eyes widened, seeing that the picture frame was no longer face down on his end table.

With long strides, Papyrus made his way to his bed and sat down, his brows creasing as he picked up the picture.

It was the day that Papyrus had finally got accepted as a trainee for the Royal Guard. Sans had been at Grillby’s—before the two had begun to date, and Papyrus had been so excited to tell Sans the good news that he had burst inside the building, Undyne following close behind him. He had told Sans and his brother had been just as excited for him as well, had even offered Papyrus a hug in congratulations.

Papyrus felt his face warm up at the thought of how Sans arms wrapped around him as he buried that round face of his into Papyrus’ middle.  It had tickled, so he had picked up Sans, swung him around enthusiastically before hugging his brother tight, skull pressed gently to the side of his brothers. It had been a good day. That was the day that he thought that Sans might have even returned his feelings, thought he had seen a glance of that bright blue that he knew his brother’s soul had to be.

Of course, the next day Sans had turned around and accepted Grillby’s request to start dating…

Papyrus quickly tossed that thought out the window and pressed his hand against the glass of the picture frame, a thumb brushing lightly at his brother’s face, gently rubbing at the upturn of Sans’ grin, the small crinkle in his brothers eyes despite how tired he looked. Papyrus’ bones started to rattle softly as he tried to hold in his tears.

He slowly moved his hand back from the glass, holding the frame tenderly, as if it was the most fragile thing he could touch before letting his head fall to the picture, teeth pressing a soft skeleton kiss to where his brother’s face lit up, eyes wet.

He held his face to the photo a moment longer before moving the picture away, setting it back up on the end table like how Sans had left it, deciding that it was a good memory and he didn’t want to hide from it again. With a shaky breath, Papyrus kicked his shoes off, stashing them against the wheels of his bed, and slipped himself underneath the blankets.

It wasn’t even late, but suddenly Papyrus found himself aching to sleep. With a small whine, Papyrus wrapped his arms around his over-stuffed body pillow, legs capturing the pillow so that it couldn’t wiggle free as he slept. Silently, Papyrus stuck his hand underneath his other pillow and felt around, retrieving the hand-sized twist of metal and brought it closer to him.

It was a key. Somewhat elegant in design, beautiful even with the way that the head was curved much like a skull in profile. Decorative swirls made up the mandible and eye socket. Smaller little lines made up the teeth.

It had been his brother’s key, Papyrus knew that, after all he had found it in the other’s sock drawer. Sans must have thought himself funny over the design as well. _A skeleton key_ , Papyrus mused, mouth quirking at the way that Sans’ had no boundaries when it came to puns and jokes.

He was just at a loss why Sans would need a secret key and what exactly it went to. _What did he need to hide? Especially from me?_ Papyrus let out a small sigh, bringing the key to his teeth, clicking it gently in thought as the human often did when they were in thought.

Papyrus took a deep breath, letting the toxic thoughts leave him before thinking back to the current Sans sleeping in the next room over.

What about him? What was Papyrus going to do with him?

It was obvious that that Sans wanted to return to his own timeline, where ever that was. Papyrus knew enough about the time lines from his brother. Knew that it was the reason why sometimes he found himself remembering things he shouldn’t recall. How he could sense when the human would show up despite having never met them before.  He even could draw what a human looked like even though he’d never seen one.

He didn’t; however, know exactly how the timelines worked. ‘Resetting’ seemed a lot more complicated than what this Sans had seemed to think it would be. Truth be told, Papyrus didn’t even really understand the resets. He understood the word, but like the timelines themselves, he didn’t understand exactly how they functioned let alone how someone like Sans could reset. Wasn’t that a human thing?

Papyrus didn’t know and just thinking about all the complications that dealt with timelines, resetting, determination all confused him. He much preferred to take life how it was but really, of he had known how to use a reset, would he have tried to use it if it meant he could bring Sans back?

The taller brother closed his eyes, furrowing his brow further. He didn’t know the answer to that. What if he had messed up? Surely, with his lack of knowledge on the topic, he would fail and then that would leave him feeling just as bad, right?

With a sigh, Papyrus curled up more into his mattress, opening his eyes so that he could seek out his main source of comfort—Sans’ fur-trimmed, red jacket. With the hoodie in his hands, Papyrus brought it to his chest and hugged it tight, burying his face into the lining.

Though it was faint, the scent of his brother was still present and Papyrus took as deep a breath as he could. He parted his mouth and shut his eyes, a soft sigh escaping him.

 _Sans…_ There was still too much about this new Sans that Papyrus wanted to know about. He thought that he could just get back to his time line and reset. That if he did he would be able to save his Papyrus, but really? Was that even a good idea if it was even possible? Wouldn’t the burden of resetting make things worse? Sans would still know that his brother had died, that he had _failed_ to protect him.

Papyrus swallowed thickly. He knew that feeling all too well. He had been right there with Sans and yet…

The skeleton quickly shook the thought from his head, fingers tightening in his brother’s jacket like a lifeline. He had a lot to think about and tomorrow was going to be long. Papyrus couldn’t help but want to aid this Sans, but he wasn’t sure that letting the other go back to his own timeline was the right way to go about it.

Denial… It was a large hurdle to cross, but he knew that if he could do it, that this Sans could too and because he had already crossed it, maybe he could help Sans all the more. He had pointers and maybe…Maybe Undyne would even be willing to help, though he had no clue how he was going to explain Sans’ sudden reappearance or all the dissimilarities between him and his brother.

Whatever. He would cross that bridge when it came, for now he just wanted to get some sleep and let his mind quiet down for a little while.

 

 


	8. Thyme

 

 

Sans awoke to the unmistakable scent of spaghetti and instantly tossed himself out of bed and down the stairs. He dashed into the kitchen only to catch himself on the wall, fingers scraping into the red paint, eye sockets wide and out of breath.

Papyrus hummed softly to himself, feeling a little optimistic with how the day would go. Sans was dedicated to leaving the time line and returning to his own, but Papyrus still hadn’t figured out how he felt about that. He grinded his teeth together in thought before letting out a sigh. He didn’t know what was up with him. It was obvious now that this Sans wasn’t _his_ Sans, but still…He couldn’t bring himself to want the smaller skeleton gone. As much as a reminder he was, it was almost…refreshing to have someone else in the house again.

When he finished the spaghetti, the younger of the brothers scooped a plateful of spaghetti on each of the two plates he had on the counter. He picked them up and turned to call for Sans when he jumped back, startled at Sans being right in front of him and out of breath. _How did I not hear him?_ he contemplated before shaking the thought from his mind.

He should be used to this by now. His brother did similar things after all. Pranks across time and space and all that.

Clearing his throat, Papyrus looked to the side a little embarrassed to be found humming and so off guard. He really was losing his touch, wasn’t he?

“N-Nyeh heh! You scared me, Sans! How long have you been…?” No. It really didn’t matter did it? Papyrus shook his head and turned his attention back on the smaller skeleton, a small smile lighting up his face.

“Never mind that! I made breakfast spaghetti! I hope you don’t mind!” Papyrus called out, voice not quite as boisterous as he used to speak in, but fairly loud for the first time in who knew how long.

Sans watched the other, socket furrowing slightly at how uncharacteristically chipper Papyrus was being. At least unnaturally from the last few days. It was so close to how his brother normally was that Sans was almost thrown through another loop. The smile certainly didn’t help matters when Sans found his face warming up.

He missed that smile.

“Uh…spaghetti is fine…” Sans vocalized, moving to follow after the taller monster before taking a seat at the table where Papyrus had already set down a plate. Papyrus only smiled more and left to grab the forks.

“Oh…Good! I was hoping it wouldn’t trigger you. Alphys—do you know Alphys? Well she told me that triggers are things that can really upset people, make them anxious and panic, which isn’t so good. I’m relieved that this isn’t the case!” Papyrus informed, chest puffed up slightly, proud that he had fully grasped the concept. It was such a foreign concept for him considering monsters were over all a pretty content race. 

Sans nodded, feeling a little awkward when Papyrus handed him the fork and sat himself down.

“Y-You’re staying for breakfast?”

Papyrus grabbed his fork and speared it into the spaghetti and began twisting the well-cooked noodled onto it, “Yes! I don’t have work or any other plans for the day. Is…is that a problem? Would you prefer to eat alone?”

Sans quickly shook his head, lowering his gaze to where his hands rested in his lap. He didn’t exactly know what to say to that. He wasn’t expecting Papyrus to want to be around him, and really, he couldn’t blame him for that. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure he really wanted Papyrus around even though the taller skeleton was certainly a calming presence.

“Nope…You’re fine…uh…thanks…” When Papyrus cocked his head, _like a puppy_ , Sans absently noted, he eased his own fork into his food and began twirling it as well.

“You know… for taking care of me and stuff. You really didn’t have to go through all this trouble,” Sans explained.

Papyrus only sighed.

 “Yes I did. What kind of a monster would I be if I let you freeze out there? I couldn’t just kick you out either. That is just as bad as leaving you out there, not to mention rude! And… it’s kind of nice to have someone around again…” Papyrus added beneath his breath.

Sans poked the forkful of spaghetti into his mouth, chewed and then promptly began coughing. He quickly buried his face in his sleeve and swallowed down the noodle before turning to look at Papyrus, eye sockets blown wide.

Papyrus quickly stuffed his own food into his mouth, gaze focusing intently at the nearest wall.

Sans watched the other a few moments before turning away as well, a hand rubbing absently at his arm. _It’s not that I’m not flattered but…_ He really needed to get back to his brother. Still, he couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.

“I…”

“No, it’s okay. Really. I have Undyne and Alphys, right?” _Even if Undyne’s already done so much and she’d rather spend her time with her girlfriend…_ “Besides! I’ve gotten used to living alone! No worries!” Papyrus quickly slipped back into his cheerful tone, yet Sans could tell that he wasn’t feeling it. His brother had never been the best of liars, preferring to be like an open book and it seemed that this Papyrus was just as lousy at dishonesty. His eyes spoke volumes.

Instead of commenting on it, Sans poked another bite of spaghetti in his mouth.

“I have to admit, you’ve really perfected the spaghetti.” Not undercooked—or burnt—meat, vegetables cut up in it and the noodles weren’t hard or soggy. And the _herbs_! “What kind of spices did you put in here? I taste garlic, but what’s these green things?”

Papyrus quickly turned his attention to what Sans was pointing out, smile twitching further up his face as the smaller skeleton went about picking out a small flake of the herb in question.

“Oh! That is something called ‘Ore-gano’! Alphys and Undyne found a ton of little spice bottles in the dump a few months back and gave me some! I have a whole cabinet full of them now!” he explained enthusiastically, stuffing another bite into his mouth and swallowed. “Rosemary. Parsley. Thyme. Cinnamon. A whole lot of them. I’m still trying to figure out what some of them go into. Like cumin and—oh! Paprika!”

Sans smiled at the other skeleton, glad to have been able to switch topics, especially to one that Papyrus was so passionate about. It was nice to hear that cheery tone once again. Much better than the morose tone Papyrus had been using since he had arrived.

“Really? Do you have a lot of thyme?”

Papyrus quickly nodded, eyes bright, “I think so. I have three bottles of— Was that a pun?” The taller skeleton’s back straightened, eyes wide, incredulous. He hadn’t really heard that right. Couldn’t have.

Sans quickly turned away, a faint blue smudge upon his cheekbones, heating his face. Had he really just made a pun? Where even had that come from?

Papyrus only smiled wider, leaning closer to Sans before giving him a nudge with his elbow, his face completely lit up, “You did! Nyeh heh heh! Hey, no need to be embarrassed, Sans! It was…it was a good one…”

Papyrus  blinked for a moment, feeling something slip down his cheek. Confused, the taller skeleton furrowed his brows before lifting a hand and wiped away the offending tear.

His smile slackened, but remained present on his face.

The chubby skeleton flicked his gaze over to his brother’s look alike, practically jumping out of his seat to wipe away another tear that was sliding down the other’s face only to stop short. As much as this Papyrus looked like him, he wasn’t his brother. He needed to stop making such daring moves. It was completely uncalled for. _Not that it was before…_

Papyrus quickly dabbed away the other tears and turned back to Sans, smiling faintly, “I’m okay. It’s just…it’s been a long time since I heard such a dumb pun…” the younger monster teased, the corner of his mouth tipping up.

Sans let out a small snort and settled back in his chair, leaning back comfortably “You’re just jealous you didn’t think of it first,” he returned. A small chuckle escaped from behind his teeth when Papyrus let out a small huff, shoved the last bite of his spaghetti in his mouth, and stood up, plate in hand.

“Yeah, well…Perhaps,” Papyrus replied and took Sans’ plate after Sans stuffed the rest of the pasta into his mouth.

Rolling his eyes, Sans pushed himself from the table, catching sight of the dusty pet rock. He swallowed hard but quickly turned away. It was still painful to look at, but he felt that it was justified. He was bad enough with feeding the thing in his own time line, surely Papyrus riddled with grief was just as permitted to let his responsibilities slip. Though looking around the house, Papyrus had managed to keep up with the majority of them.

Thinking about chores and responsibilities, Sans let his gaze drift down to his chest where his hoodie was still in disrepair. A thick slash across the front had frayed fabric. Even his shirt was a little worse for wear.

At least there was no longer any blood staining the clothing. That had apparently faded away when he had jumped time lines along with the odd way the fabric had been dyed. _Does the void have ink-like properties?_ Sans couldn’t help but think and quickly tossed the query aside for later.

“While you wash up dishes did you maybe… want me to start some laundry?” Sans questioned, keeping his eyes from connecting with Papyrus’.

Once again, Papyrus found himself surprised from the offer and couldn’t pin point whether this Sans was just less lazy than his own Sans or if he just felt like he needed pay him back somehow. Either way, the offer was nice and very much appreciated.

“If you really want to, I wouldn’t be opposed…” Papyrus replied, glancing at Sans and taking in the other’s disheveled look. It wasn’t that he hadn’t noticed it—nor the large split along the side of Sans’ skull—but there simply had been more important things to worry about. His mental state for one, but he was feeling a little more stable.

With the fact that Sans might not even be able to successfully return to his own timeline and that the other needed his help, Papyrus supposed that he had kind of switched gears. He had someone who needed him again. It almost felt right. If only this Sans was _his_ Sans then everything would be perfect.

Sans only shrugged, “It’s not a problem, besides if today is your day off, shouldn’t you be enjoying yourself instead of wasting your time doing chores?”

Papyrus gave a short nod, smiling softly, “My brother used to tell me the same thing when he tried to convince me to laze about all day with him. Sometimes it even worked.” The taller skeleton gave a conspiratorial grin before turning back to the dishes.

“The laundry basket is in the bathroom for future reference. Oh! And the drier only works if you put it on the ‘towels’ setting. I’ve been meaning to get Alphys to fix that when she has time, but it keeps slipping my mind.”

The smaller skeleton nodded his head, waving a quick ‘got it’ to the other before heading off to start a load of laundry. It wasn’t until after he had gathered up all the loose laundry around the house—promptly leaving the red hoodie on Papyrus’ bed—that Sans realized he didn’t exactly have anything to wear while his clothes were washing.

With a sigh, Sans shed his own clothing, dropping his shorts, hoodie, and t-shirt into the washing machine along with the assortment of clothing that Papyrus had already had in the clothes basket. Sans straightened the little bag he carried around his neck, caressing it a moment before quickly stashing it away under his brother’s scarf. He quickly added the laundry detergent and stood on his tip-toes to turn the dial and get the load of laundry washing, not bothering to separate colors.  Sans knew, scientifically of course, that everything came out fine. Usually.

Chewing at his teeth, the chubby made his way back to the front of the house, leaning over the railing so that Papyrus could hear him and not quite see him. Unless he left the kitchen of course.

“So uh…Papyrus… Do you have any clothes I could borrow? I kind of just realized that I only have that one outfit and it’s in the wash.”

Downstairs, Papyrus furrowed his brow, letting his eyes drop to the ground in thought.

His clothes were much too big for Sans, he knew that so logically the obvious choice was to let the skeleton borrow something from his brother’s clothing. But… Papyrus swallowed hard, fingers kneading into the soapy sponge as he started cleaning the skillet.

“Y-yeah... um…” Papyrus squeezed his eyes shut and stood straighter. He could totally handle Sans wearing his brother’s clothing. They wore roughly the same size clothing and it wasn’t like he was going to forget that his brother was gone. Besides, the crack in Sans’ skull was a dead giveaway that the skeleton wasn’t his brother. He had this under _control_.

“Just grab something of my brother’s to wear…”

Sans’ brows knit together, his head tilting to the side as he tried to catch a glimpse of Papyrus but considering the railing was above the kitchen, he quickly gave up.

“You sure? I could just hide out somewhere until laundry is done.”

Papyrus let out a huff, which had Sans smiling.

“Of course I’m sure! I’m not going to make you go without clothes like some kind of jerk, you bone head!”

Sans let out a snort and rolled his eyes, “Nice one, br—Papyrus.”  He caught himself, choking back the tightness in his throat before slipping away from the banister and into the other Sans’ room.

Deciding to play it safe, Sans pulled out one of the few shirts that he had noticed he shared with this Sans and a pair of basketball shorts. Nothing too spectacular or awe inspiring for sure, but since when was he someone who cared about that sort of thing? With a pair of shorts and blue, printed T reading ‘I make science puns periodically’, Sans made his way back down the stairs, feeling a little self-conscious. He missed having his slippers. Maybe he could go buy some or find some in the dump or something.

If he was ever able to go outside again.

Sans sluggishly made his way down stairs and to the sofa, easily plopping himself down on the worn cushion and let himself sink into their comforting embrace. Papyrus was still in the kitchen finishing up the last of the dishes—a pot it looked like, and Sans simply watched the other move about.

Papyrus still wasn’t dancing as he worked, but Sans noticed that the taller monster certainly looked like he was feeling a little better. He wondered what exactly had changed for Papyrus to look so much brighter. Certainly, it wasn’t just the fact that he had eaten breakfast, though that usually was enough to give Sans a little extra energy. Not that that was really saying much.

It wasn’t until after Papyrus made his way to the living room that Sans realized he had been staring at the other skeleton for roughly ten minutes. He quickly averted his attention and stared at the blackened tv screen as if he was enraptured with whatever was on despite the tv being turned off.

Papyrus only rolled his eyes, easily noticing how tense Sans seemed the be, “Anything good on?”

Sans glanced up at Papyrus, mouth shakily lifting up into a wider grin, “Well, as much as I like this channel, it’s no _blackbluster_.” Wow, that one was horrible. Sans mentally reminded himself never to use that one again.

Even still, Papyrus let out a small huff and sat down on the couch, careful to keep at least a distance between them. He should have known, but hadn’t expected Sans to looks so much like his brother in those clothes. Papyrus quickly crossed his arms, subtly using that as an excuse to rub at his sternum, willing the sudden thumping of his soul to quiet down. _He isn’t Sans! Stop it you foolish thing!_

“So…do you want to watch some MTTV? I think Mettaton’s supposed to have a new cooking show on today,” Papyrus spoke up, eyes lighting up, yet still hiding a bit of something else in them.

 _Caution_? _Doubt?_ Sans couldn’t exactly pin point it, but it was easily enough to get rid of.

“Sure thing, got all the _thyme_ in the world.”

Papyrus let out a groan, chuckling softly before flicking on the tv, “You already used that one, Sans! Get some new material!”

Sans only grinned further. Maybe staying one more day wouldn’t hurt.


	9. Great

 

 

They had sat on the couch and watched MTTV for a little over two hours when Papyrus couldn’t handle it any more. He threw his hopped to his feet and tossed his arms in the air, pacing across the living room floor as Sans simply looked on the odd spectacle.

“I CAN’T STAND IT ANYMORE! I NEED TO MAKE ONE OF THOSE…THOSE—?”

Sans let out a small yawn, a pleasant, relaxed hum dancing over his bones, “Pies…?”

“YES! PIE! It looks too good to pass up and I’ve never even _heard_ of pie before. I wonder if there is a recipe for it in that cookbook Undyne and I found…” Papyrus thought aloud, long legs moving confidently as Papyrus made his way into the kitchen and quickly started flipping through one of the few some-what tattered cookbooks he had managed to salvage.

Sans let out a content sigh, eyes lazily trailing after the other’s movements, “Never heard of pie? Doesn’t Muffet make those though? Or the Queen for that matter?” never having pie was one thing, but never having _heard_ of it? That was a little odd.

“Muffet? Making desserts? That’s a weird difference in timelines, Sans. Muffet owns this little Bed and Breakfast in Hotland called ‘The Spider’s Delight’. I think she also houses a soup kitchen every Wednesday…”  Papyrus paused, tapping a boney finger against his chin before nodding. Yes, that sounded right.  And what was this about a queen?

“As for the Queen, I don’t believe that we ever had one of those, unless that is what the human is?”

Sans jolted up, sputtering before teleporting from the couch and into the kitchen doorway, “ H-Human?! There is a human here?”

Papyrus quickly turned around, cookbook held tighter in his hands before nodding his head slowly, “Yes? Oh! But they are super kind! They live with King Asgore up in the castle!  They’ve been there for…let’s see…almost six years. They were the one who defeated the other human that….” Papyrus quieted, eyes falling to the worn print of the book. His fingers lazily smoothed over the wrinkled pages.

The smaller skeleton nodded, relaxing a little and feeling a little guilty for having worried Papyrus like that. So there had been two humans in this time line. Sans could only sigh in relief at the knowledge that this human was a kind soul.

“It’s okay, Paps. I understand, but what about…” _Shit… what was her name? Tora? Teral? Ah yes…_ “…Toriel?” That sounded right. He couldn’t believe that he had forgotten the Queen’s name. He used to be pretty close to her, sharing jokes on either side of the Ruins’ door.

“Oh! Toriel! She’s the old Boss Monster that lives in Waterfall! She is neighbors with Undyne and Napper Hog? Spooky Bloo Bloo?”

“Napstablook?”

“Yes! Him! I think she helps Napstablook run the Snail Farm from time to time. I think she mostly teaches kids how to control their magic. She’s just a school teacher. Is she really the Queen in your timeline?” Papyrus wondered in awe. That just seemed so absurd.

Sans shrugged, rubbing at his arms nervously. Quickly the smaller skeleton looked over his shoulders and, of course, saw nothing. He still felt the chill around him, fingers pressing into his arms.

“S-sort of. She used to be the Queen, but when she found out that the King was having an affair with Doctor Gaster, she got upset and left.  I…”Sans brows furrowed in confusion and he moved a hand to rub at the crack in his skull. A soft buzzing in the back of his head giving him a headache, but what really bothered him was that he didn’t _know._

 “I…I don’t remember, Gaster fell into the core…I think…”

Images flashed through Sans’ eyes. A struggle. Papyrus, him, and their dad? No—Gaster fighting for some reason. Sans shoving Papyrus aside as the royal scientist stumbled back and fell into the—

Sans quickly reached out, trying to grab the nearest ting to steady himself, legs feeling like gelatin. His breath picked up and he snapped his eyes shut as the ringing in his head got louder.

Papyrus quickly stepped forward, steadying Sans as the other about toppled over.

“You alright, Sans? C-Come sit down,” The younger of the monsters murmured, taking Sans by the arm and gently guided him to the closest place to sit, the kitchen counter. Gently Papyrus picked up the bundle of bones and set Sans onto the counter. Quickly, he grabbed a glass and poured water into it, offering the drink to the other skeleton.

Silently, Sans reached out and took the glass, easily sipping at it before leaning back, resting his head on an upper cabinet as he closed his eyes. The chill started easing away and the buzzing, slowly, dwindled away.

“I think I’m fine now, heh… dunno where that dizziness came from. Weird…” The skeleton still could see a few of the images in the back of his vision, though he was unsure where they had come from. Certainly, he hadn’t actually seen those events. He had always lived in Snowdin with his brother, right? No. He worked in Hotlands for a time as the great Doctor’s assistant.  He remembered that but, what did they work on? Sans couldn’t remember for the life of him.

“A-Anyway, where was I?” Sans mumbled, trying to back track.

Papyrus shook his head, looking concerned, “You don’t have to continue, Sans. Just finish your water, alright?”

Sans chuckled and nodded, “Sure thing, br—Papyrus.”

Unfortunately with Sans just a foot away, Papyrus hard the slip up and he froze, fingers loosening on the book, letting it slide from his fingers. Sans quickly summoned his magic, catching the book and set it on the counter, gaze distinctly keeping contact with the counter. _Shit…shit…_

“S-Sorry…I…”

Slowly, Papyrus eased himself back into motion, his movements a little jerky, but smoothed out as he reached for the cookbook. His face was warm and his soul sputtered in his chest. It wasn’t necessarily an uncomfortable feeling, but it did have a lingering pain within it, almost wistfulness. Papyrus felt sick with how much he actually wanted to hear the word from the other’s mouth.

“It…It’s okay, Sans. Would…would calling me brother… make you feel better? Would it make you feel more at ease?”

Sans almost missed the other’s question, his words far too quiet. Taking in a deep, but shaky breath, Sans looked away, an uneasiness crawling over his bones once again. He could feel fingers pressing into his scapula, easing down his spine, the back of his ribs, and up to his humerus. They were soothing motions but they did anything but.

“…I…I gotta go…” Sans choked out, setting the glass on the counter and quickly hopped from the ledge. He about made it out of the kitchen before he felt another hand reach for him, grasping around his wrists where the radius and ulna connected. Slowly he stilled, the lights of his eyes absent, leaving empty sockets.

Papyrus stood there a long moment, his hand holding Sans in place as he tried to piece together something coherent. To piece together something that would ease away the sudden tension in the room. Silently, he berated himself. _Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid! Of course he doesn’t want to call you that. He’s still…he’s still not given up on his Papyrus…_

The thought had Papyrus’ sockets widening. Did he _want_ Sans to give up on his brother? No. he didn’t. It was obvious that Sans adored his brother. Possibly even doted on him much the way that his Sans had doted on him. He wouldn’t ever ask Sans to forget about his brother. That was just selfishness and frankly, he didn’t think he wanted him to anyway. He just didn’t want to be left alone again.

“I…spoke out of turn and I’m sorry, Sans…”

Sans stood still before gently pulling his hand from the other’s grip. He shivered under the chill that surrounded him, but Sans ignored it in favor of shaking his head. “…It’s…it’s okay…. Just…I really want to get back to my brother. It’s not that I don’t appreciate everything you’ve done for me so far, I do!  But he’s my _brother_ …I…”

“You loved him?” Papyrus’ voice was but a quiet, trifling thing and the guilt of hearing it weighed down on Sans’ bones.

“Of course! He’s my brother!” Sans snapped, turning around to stare at the taller skeleton only to jerk back at the way that Papyrus was looking at him, like he was broken once again. Sans hated it. He hated that look on that face. Sans stepped forward, resting a hand on the other’s forearm before glancing away, face flushed in shame.

“I know he’s your brother, Sans. I meant as… as your soul’s mate. It’s a given that you care about him because he’s your brother, but…did you love him as something more than just brothers?” His voice was still so small.

Sans trembled under the other’s voice, his empty gaze staring off into the kitchen tiles. _How did he…?_ _Soul mates?_ Sans took a shallow breath, swallowing heavily, but otherwise refused to answer that question. It was something that he had been trying to hide from himself for so long. How in the world did this Papyrus just waltz in and guess it so easily? Was…was he really such an open book?

“I…I was in love with my brother…”

Sans’ head snapped up, white pupils waking in his sockets once more. _What?_

“Y-You…wha—“

“I was in love with my brother, Sans. He…he was everything to me. My brother, my best friend, but what was  I supposed to do? Tell him?” Papyrus let out a shaky laugh, eyes closing as he hunched over, wrapping his arms across his chest, Sans hand slipping from his sleeve.

“How does one go about telling their brother that they are in love with them? Especially when he was already happily with someone else who loved him? Someone who turned out to be much better for him.”

Sans quickly shook his head, stepping forward, brows furrowing more before reaching out, slowly so that Papyrus could pull away if he wanted to. When the taller monster stayed in place, Sans place a reassuring hand on the other’s arm, “Don’t say that, Paps… There isn’t anyone better than you, you know?  No one greater than the Great Papyrus, right?”

Papyrus’ breath hitched at the familiar words, arms a little uncomfortable under the other’s hold, but ignored that in favor of shaking his head, “No, I wasn’t able to save him…I…He died, Sans…I was right there and I couldn’t save him. He…dust was everywhere….”

Stilling his frantically beating soul, Sans closed his eyes, gently leaning against the other as Papyrus’ voice resonated within him. Though the situations had been different, Sans understood this Papyrus on such a deep level. The guilt of their love for their brothers. The failure at saving the one person they put above everyone else. It was almost funny if it wasn’t so horrible.

“I…I loved my Papyrus too. I…I told him once. It…didn’t end so well. He was shocked and then denied it, saying that I was confuses. That it was a horrible joke. He didn’t return the sentiment once he realized that I was telling the truth…

“Things were tense for a few days but then the human came and reset everything. Thankfully, he didn’t remember the confession and everything went back to normal, of course I still remember the way his face twisted in disbelief and hurt. The _guilt_ that he tried to hide over the fact he couldn’t return my feelings…”Sans let out a sigh, closing his eyes when he felt the chill fade from his bones, Papyrus’ arm moving to hold him against his taller frame.

“That must have been hard. How did you cope?”

Sans shrugged, a self-deprecating laugh escaping his mouth, “I never really did. I just pretended that I never told him. That was how the reset had made it, essentially, what is a little pretending when everyone else already forgot?”

Papyrus gave a menial hum. He understood that, he had tried pretending too when he first realized that he had more-than-brotherly feelings toward his brother.  It really didn’t help anything, only made his soul ache more and more when he was around his smaller brother. He could vividly imagine what Sans was going through, but what if in another time line everything would have been different?

Just between this time line and the one Sans came from there were already so many differences. While Papyrus didn’t want to deal with a reset—he’d much rather remember the good times he had had with his brother than risk everything being completely erased, Sans was still set on getting back to his Papyrus.

What if he succeeded? Maybe this time his Papyrus could return those same feelings that Sans had for him. What if, in some timeline, a Sans and a Papyrus was completely one. Shared souls so perfectly aligned that they had become one being?  One entity.

Even if it was just a myth surrounding the mysterious things called ‘souls’, Papyrus couldn’t help but believe that there was some truth to it, after all it had to have originated from somewhere, right? A perfectly forced soul bond that made the monsters involved become one single soul, one single body, yet two loving minds.

What if this Sans could have something like that if he was able to return to his time line and reset? Papyrus hoped that such a thing was possible. With a sign, Papyrus gently picked up the smaller skeleton, resolve deeply engraved upon his elegant features.

“Then I will help you!”

Sans snapped his eyes wide, face flushing as he struggled in the other’s grasp, astounded just how easily the other had picked him up, then his words caught up to him.

“What?”

“I’ll help you get back to your own time line,” Papyrus replied, moving back toward the living room, carrying Sans with him the entire way before he set the smaller bag of bone on the couch. He gave the other a tenacious grin, hands moving to rest on his hips gently, careful with the sensitive bone beneath his sweater.

“I may not know much about the scientific aspect of time lines, resets, or any of that silly stuff, but hey, I’m the Great Papyrus! If anyone can help you, it’s me!” He called out, puffing his chest out proudly. And even though the slender skeleton’s voice wasn’t nearly as boisterous as Sans had grown attached to over the many years of his life, something about this Papyrus was such breath of fresh air.  He missed the other’s can-do attitude and he couldn’t help the twitch of his mouth form into sincere grin.

Sans let out a soft huff of amusement, a pleasant fluttering in his soul and a heat warm his bones at the other conviction. He could almost believe that this could work, “Heh…Th-thanks, Papyrus…”

Papyrus returned the other’s cheerful grin before flopping himself down on the couch, leaving only a few inches of space between them. He felt his own cheeks heat up in embarrassment at the other’s gratitude. “After we take the rest of the day off, of course. We should get plenty of rest before working so hard!” Sans, unfortunately, couldn’t find any flaw in the other’s words and decided that tomorrow they could find the key to the lab. Then they would be able to get to work.

“Sounds good, Paps. A nap does sound pretty nice right now.”

Papyrus chuckled fondly, watching the smaller skeleton get comfortable on the couch, much the same way his brother did when he intended to sleep on the couch. He couldn’t help but worry about his promise.

He intended to keep it, of course, but it had to be a lot harder than he made it out to be. Plus Sans was still in denial about his brother’s death. What if they failed…? Then Sans would be stuck here in this time line, right? What then?

Papyrus took a deep breath. Papyrus rested a hand over Sans’ skull and pet it fondly as Sans had already managed to drift to sleep. _Then it’s my job to pick up the pieces…_ Papyrus vowed letting his own eyes slip shut.

 


	10. Key

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man! Sorry it took so long for this chapter... I needed to work out the plot so I took the week off. Well...Now I at least have up to chapter 33 planned!  
> As before I'll post chapter 10 today but chapters 11-15 will be posted to my tumblr: Brosboning. After those 5 are posted, then I'll post then in a bulk of 5. So if you want the chapters as they come out, I recommend checking my tumblr (I try to post 2+ chapters every weekend)!

 

**Key**

 

Papyrus was the first to wake up. _Nothing unusual there,_ he thought as he sat up, a curled hand rubbing at his eye sockets, watching absently as Sans continued to snooze away. The other skeleton’s body curled up against Papyrus’ hip, an arm tossed over the top of his legs.

He personally couldn’t imagine the pose being very comfortable normally, let alone while sleeping, then again if the small ache in his shoulders and spine was anything to go by, he hadn’t exactly slept in the most comfortable position either. Papyrus smiled to himself, content with the way things were going. He still worried about the fact that he had agreed to help Sans get back to his own timeline, but there really wasn’t anything to do about that now, even if he felt that maybe it was the wrong choice. He could only hope that everything would turn out fine. That he wouldn’t feel lost after Sans left.

Shaking the unsettling feeling from his bones, Papyrus eased himself from the couch,   gently repositioning Sans’ arm on the tattered cushions before standing up. A soft groan left his mouth as he stretched. His spine crackled and shoulders popped, leaving the lanky monster trembling in momentary bliss. He straightened his clothes, gave one last glance toward the sleeping skeleton, and made his way to the kitchen to get breakfast— well, lunch—cooked. He had slept far too late.

Peeking inside the fridge, Papyrus gathered the eggs and milk. _Pancakes it is,_ he mused before getting to work.

About half an hour later, the smell of something sweet wafted passed Sans’ nose, rousing him from his sleep. With a yawn, the squat skeleton pushed himself up, legs crossed as he sat on the couch. Sans curled his toes, watching them absently as he remembered that he needed to go out and get some new slippers. 

Perhaps Papyrus could get him a pair somewhere since he was on house arrest. Sans shrugged and rolled over, flopping back on the other side of the couch so he could watch Papyrus work in the kitchen. It was the second time he had noticed a little more pep in the other’s movement. Still no dancing, but the taller skeleton was humming to himself in the tall-tale way he did when trying to keep his voice down.

Sans smiled at the sight, propping his arm up and set his head on his palm, enjoying the little show. Today felt pretty relaxing so far, something the older skeleton could appreciate. _Ah… We are going to try and get me back to my timeline today._    _I should probably get up then…_ With a huff, Sans swung his legs over the side of the couch just as Papyrus turned around with two plates stacked full of pancakes.

“Oh! I was just about to wake you! I made pancakes for breakfast, er… do you like strawberries?” the taller of the two informed, eyes wide and head cocked to the left.

Sans nodded his head, smile widening before joining Papyrus at the table. He did his best to avoid looking at the rock, but knowing it was there and abandoned still ate at him.  Turning his attention back to his food, his eyes widened further, _not only a good cook, but can make it looks nice too_ …  He almost didn’t want to disturb the homemade drizzle of strawberry syrup, whipped cream, and fresh strawberries. _How did Papyrus learn to make all this?_ Slowly, Sans took a bite of food and let out a pleased groan before stuffing his mouth full of more pancake. Taking that as a his cue, Papyrus quickly began eating his own food.

Once they had finished their breakfast, Papyrus gathered their dishes. Sans watched for a moment before the sight of the pet rock in the peripherals of his vision finally got to him. He pushed himself out of the chair, made his way to the kitchen, and scrambled to the cabinet he hoped the sprinkles was in. Finding them, Sans eyed them curiously. The rainbow sprinkles that were littered on the plate were gone, but there were some chocolate ones. Well, the pet rock was a rock, it wasn’t exactly like chocolate would harm it any.

Shrugging, Sans made his way back to the table and grabbed the rock. He dusted off the discolored sprinkles and put the rock on the table. He quickly dumped the sprinkles into the trash and causally slipped the plate in with the pile Papyrus was working on.

Papyrus turned, eyeing Sans curiously as the other skeleton made his way to the cabinet and pulled out another small plate and head back to the table.  With a clean plate and some new sprinkles, Sans went about wiping off the rock, set it on the plate, and dusted the chocolate sprinkles around it. With everything done, Sans was content with his work. He turned to make his way back to the kitchen when he noticed that Papyrus was watching him.

The smaller skeleton felt his face heat up and he quickly ducked his head, “Uh…Sorry it was just…” _Just what? Bothering me? That’s pretty rude to say…_  Sans made his way back to the cabinet and put the sprinkles away, standing on his tip toes so that he could reach, feeling Papyrus’ eyes on his back. When he turned around, Papyrus was smiling but the shame written in his eyes was enough to make Sans swallow hard.

Thankfully, Papyrus didn’t say anything about it and Sans let the embarrassment fade.

“So, do you…er…still want to help me get back to my timeline?” Sans motioned, hands promptly stuffed into his pockets. He felt weird without his hoodie. He supposed that Papyrus probably had moved the load of laundry he had started to the dryer at some point.  It had been a day, maybe two since he did the laundry. Time was so hard to keep track of when one slept all day. The irony that being a timeline hopper and being bad with time not lost on him.

Papyrus set the last dish aside and turned off the water and stared ahead. For a moment, Sans thought that Papyrus hadn’t heard him, but then the taller of them turned back to him, smile still on his face.

“Of course! I said I would help and I shall. I don’t really understand the timeline things, but if maybe we can start with something I would know…Is...is there anything like that?” Papyrus questioned, drying his hands on a towel before draping it on the front handle of the oven.

Sans shrugged, giving the question a thought. He only knew a few things that Papyrus would understand. Thankfully, those were some pretty important components.

“Actually, yeah. Did your Sans—Wow that’s weird to say…Did he ever mention anything about a lab? Or anything about notebooks or files he stored his research in? Ah…And um…a key. Did he have anything like that?” he really hoped that Papyrus knew something about that. He really didn’t want to Gaster Blast his way into the lab. Who knew what kind of damage that would cause to the house.

“I…A lab? Like a laboratory? No. He didn’t have anything like that. As for notebooks, if he had any, I’ve never seen them. I have seen some books though, but they weren’t really anything he put notes in. I think more like text books,” Papyrus explained, moving into the living room, long legs carrying him to the bookshelf so he could pull of the books in question.

Sans quickly joined him, taking a hold of a few of the books that Papyrus handed to him, His smile dimmed as he took the last of the stack. None of them seemed like they would be much help. He had most of the same ones. The one about magic control, however, was new. _Did the Sans from this timeline have trouble with managing his magic?_

Papyrus watched as Sans set aside the books he knew he couldn’t use and quickly flipped through the others. After a few minute, he shook his head and let out a sigh. No good.

“Do you have anything else?”

Papyrus furrowed his brows before shaking his head, eyes darting to the wall, a hand moving to press against his chest.

“I…There is a key, but…”

Sans quickly jumped to his feet, eyes wide as he turned back to Papyrus, “Where? I didn’t see one in his room, did you have it?”

Papyrus flicked his eyes back to Sans’ and frowned, a small scowl taking over his features, “You snooped through his stuff? You didn’t –Was that the reason you were in my room?” Sans had to look away when Papyrus put his hands on his hips and did that whole foot tapping thing. _Just like my brother…_ Sans noted before meeting the other’s eyes. He moved his hand to the back of his neck and scratched absently.

“Uh…M-Maybe… I didn’t really have a choice, Papyrus. I …I need to get back home…” He spoke, eyes trailing to the floor before looking back to Papyrus when he say the other playing around with the collar of his sweater.

The taller skeleton rolled his eyes and let out a disgruntled sigh, but otherwise seemed to  take it well.

“Yes, well. Next time I prefer you just ask. You did just now and was that really so hard?” Papyrus felt a little bad when he caught Sans flinch, but Sans needed to learn that privacy was important. Hadn’t he given Sans privacy this entire time? Papyrus huffed again before waving for Sans to follow him.

Silently, the two skeletons made their way up the stairs, Sans pausing outside Papyrus’ door as the other monster went inside his bedroom. Papyrus emerged moments later, a bronze key tucked between his fingers.

San’s eye widened and he reached for the key only for Papyrus to pull his hand back. Sans frowned before noticing the glimmer of fear in the other’s eyes.

“Paps?”

The nickname jolted Papyrus out of his thoughts. Slowly, he shook his head, “Nyeh heh…It’s nothing just… I’m a little nervous. You said something about a laboratory and Sans had this key I haven’t been able to figure out what it belonged to…”

Sans nodded, fingers flexing to reach out only for him to pause. Maybe Papyrus didn’t want the contact? But when Papyrus didn’t flinch away, Sans brought his hand back up and covered Papyrus’, only realizing now that it was shaking. He could imagine what it must feel like to have your most trusted person keep secrets from you. He knew he would hate it. _And I still did it to Papyrus all the time…even if it was for his own good…_

Sans opened his mouth and closed it, sockets furrowing as he tried to find the words. It was harder to tell Papyrus the other Sans’ secrets, even ones that they both shared. It wasn’t exactly his place to tell Papyrus, but if he wanted to get back to his own timeline…

“Do… Do you want to know about the lab?”

Papyrus stood up straighter, eyes fixed on Sans’, holding his gaze before he looked back to the key in his hand. It was likely that this key lead to the mysterious laboratory that Sans had mentioned. If it really did, Papyrus didn’t know exactly what he was going to do.

_Sans was kidding something like that from me the whole time?_ And with that thought, another, more important one, popped into the taller skeleton’s mind:

_What else did he not tell me?_

Papyrus rubbed at his arm, soothing himself. When he felt Sans squeeze his hand, he gave a small smile, appreciative of the worry in the other’s eyes even if he felt it was a little misplaced. He wasn’t some child that needed to be concerned about. He was an adult now, but even still, he realized that Sans had to care for him at least a little. He had been opening up a little more the last couple days and Papyrus found he liked the sentiment. He liked having someone worry over him even though he could take care of himself; he had been for over a year after all.

_Well, with the help of Undyne, Alphys, and Grillby…_

After worrying his teeth together, Papyrus gave a small nod, “…Yes… That…I think that would be a good idea, you know, so I can help you.”

The short skeleton let out a sigh and shook his head, “I understand you want to help me, but—“

“No ‘buts’, Sans. I can handle it. Did you want me to know about this laboratory or what?”

Sans let out a small laugh before releasing Papyrus’ hand and palmed himself in the face with it. _My Stars…_

“Okay, okay. Follow me,” Sans voiced, dropping his hand and gave it a little, beckoning wave. He made his way downstairs, eye flicking back to Papyrus every few feet to make sure that the other was following him—he was—and to judge just how Papyrus was going to handle the news. He had no clue about that one. He could only hope that Papyrus wouldn’t resent him for showing him that side of his brother. Sometimes things was  better left unsaid. That was why he had never told his own Papyrus.

Sans and Papyrus made their way to and out the front door. Papyrus furrowed his brow in thought, wondering just where Sans thought he was going before he followed Sans around the corner of the house.

The sun was out, so thankfully, it wasn’t as cold. He didn’t think that he wanted to be standing out in the cold as he waited on Sans to show him this ‘lab’. _Though I should be used to it. I used to spend a great deal of time outside before…_ Papyrus quickly cut himself off there as he came face to face with a thick, metal door.

“Welp. Here we are, “Sans said, motioning toward the door hidden deep behind their house. Papyrus eyed the door a moment longer before looking at Sans. He could feel his soul flickering rapidly in his chest. He hated to say it, but Papyrus had to admit. It intimidated him.

_I wonder if this was where Sans went when I couldn’t find him…O-Or when he said he as going to be busy in his room…_ The fact that his brother had teleportation powers was not lost on him. Sans used to play a lot of pranks using the powers of teleportation, after all. Many of which were directed at him.

Papyrus reached out, placing a hand on the door, feeling the sharp bite of the cold metal in bare hands. He almost missed his gloves in that moment, but his gloves were from a him long past. He didn’t deserve to wear his battle body anymore.

“You sure you’re ready, Paps?” Sans asked, voice low and steady.

“If not I can—“

“No! No… I got this…but maybe you should open the door…” the taller monster added before placing the key into Sans’ hand, his eyes not leaving it until after Sans stepped forward and pressed it into the lock.

It clicked and slowly, Sans opened the door.

The lights immediately flickered to life and Papyrus stared ahead, mouth agape as he took in the sight before him.

The room was painted in a soft, almost sterile blue. Grey tiles made up the floor and papers were scattered about, especially in the back of the room. As if on auto-pilot, Papyrus walked further into the room, eyes scanning the tightly packed shelves with notebook after notebook. A small metal thing sat on one of the coutners and was plugged in. If he had to guess from its appearance, he would guess it to be some kind of small fridge or freezer.

Other instruments of science were settled far back on the counters: beakers, test tubes. Some of which were filled with various amounts of liquids. Some more spiral notebooks were opened at a desk and a blue print was spread across the surface. Words written both in his brother’s handwriting and some strange pictures littered the pages.

And right in the middle of the desk was a slightly crinkled photo.

Papyrus’ eye widened as he took in the image of a much younger version of his brother. Both of them smiling wide and settled on the shoulders of a slender man in a lab coat. Papyrus instantly remembered the man as their father.

The sudden sound of Sans ripping at a large, white sheet tore Papyrus’ attention from the photo. When the smaller skeleton finally freed the sheet, Papyrus could only gasp and gawk at the large, demolished machine. 

 

 


	11. Wingdings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! Got a lil burned out, but I'm motivated once more and will hopefully be getting some chapters out rather frequently again ;u; Thanks for being so patient!

**Wingdings**

Sans let out a growl as he took in the state of the broken down time machine.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he called out, fists clenching and unclenching as he tried his best to reign in his sudden temper. His left socket glowing with blue-black magic.

“It’s nearly complete and the damn thing is ripped apart! Pieces are all over the ground and—is that the LCD melted to the motor? What in the _hell_ did he _do_? Blast the thing with magic? It’s charred so bad it’s a miracle it’s still standing!” Sans snapped, grabbing at the machine. He poked at the different panels that were either rusted, melted, or so badly damaged that just touching them had the part falling to the ground with a clatter.

Papyrus swallowed thickly, shivering as he stared on at the damage before him.

He didn’t exactly understand what the machine was but it was obvious that Sans had hoped it was going to be of some help. That thought was only at the very back of his mind as he continued gawking at the melted and scorched metal.

_He felt himself be pushed aside. When he turned back around, he saw Sans in front of him, Sans’ eyes fierce as he used himself as a shield to protect Papyrus._

_Papyrus stepped forward and his brother turned his head slightly, eyes still fixed on the_ demon _that stepped closer. The creature brandishing a rather formidable cleaver, dust littered across the tiny thing’s hands and over the blood-stained blade._

_He heard Sans bark out to him, “GET OUT OF HERE, PAPYRUS!”_

_Papyrus felt himself still. He had replied, though the words didn’t reach his ears as he finally stepped closer to Sans, his arms out to pull his brother closer, soul pounding away in his chest._

_“I SAID GET OUT OF HERE! I WON’T BE ABLE TO KEEP THEM BUSY FOR LONG!” Sans shouted. Suddenly Papyrus stumbled back, a large, fanged tiger’s skull shoving its way between him and his older brother. The skulls eyes glowed a bright cyan and Papyrus couldn’t help but stare as the monstrosity opened its mouth and the loudest crackle of magic split the air. White, impossibly pure magic ripped from its maw toward the human only for the demon to easily dodge the assault._

Papyrus trembled as he slowly came back to himself, mouth agape as he flicked his eyes about the room. He stumbled forward reaching an arm out to steady himself against the wall as he breathed deeply, trying to control the rapid beating of his soul. He could feel his magic tugging at him, wanting to be let free, as if he was still in the moment, but Papyrus quickly reined it in when he saw Sans looking at him with a concerned gaze.

“I…It’s okay…I just…” Just what?

Papyrus shook his head and eased himself back on his feet, “Sh-should I even bother asking how bad this …machine… is damaged?” He inquired, voice a still a little shaky, but thankfully, Sans let it go even if the worry in his eyes remained present. At least he wasn’t screaming any more.

Sans let out a huff and pressed a palm against his forehead and rubbed along the crack of his skull. It throbbed with a headache, from the stress and the flaring of his magic, he assumed. He had no clue what he was going to do now. The machine was practically totaled. Though he supposed a few of the things were still usable.  He’d need a completely new motor and a new display. Not to mention a ton of scrap metal and there were at least three blown fuses.

“It’s bad, but I think we can get it running if we can find enough replacement parts. Your brother definitely knew his way around machines, that’s for sure. He was practically done with the time machine when it was destroyed. I wonder what had happened to make him destroy it…” Sans contemplated, glancing toward Papyrus once more, checking up on him.

Papyrus nodded, sockets creased as he tried to recall what would cause his brother to destroy his machine. Of course, nothing came to mind.

Sans had been kind to a fault. He went out of his way to help others—kind of impressive considering how lazy he was. There were a few times Papyrus had woke up to find some monsters from town sitting on their couch as Sans listened to their problems.

Sometimes he would even dish out some of their money to help the monster get back on their feet. Papyrus had thought it was nice at the time and probably one of the reasons he had ended up falling for his brother. He just seemed to care so much about everyone. Of course, everyone else seemed to love Sans too… How did he ever expect Sans to return his affections when Sans had countless others fawning all over him?

Eventually Sans had settled on Grillby. _No surprise there…Grillby was the only person who would listen to_ Sans’ _problems…_ _No wonder he fell for him…_ Papyrus thought, rubbing his forearm as shame washed over him. He should have listened to his brother more but it was too late for that now…

Papyrus glanced back toward Sans, eyes following the shorter skeleton as he gathered up a piece of paper and a pen and started scribbling down whatever it was he was doing. It looked like a list of some sort, though Papyrus didn’t understand a lot of the words written. _Science stuff, I guess._

Feeling a little more stable, Papyrus stepped forward, relieved to find that his legs were steady enough and made his way over to Sans. He leaned over him as Sans continued his messy scrawl. _Different than Sans’ neat writing…_ Papyrus absently noted.

“Is that a list of things we need to fix the machine?” Papyrus chimed in, silently testing a few of the words on the list in his mouth.

Sans gave a non-committal hum as he continued his list, his back, for once, ramrod straight. A professional air surrounded him as he moved his head about, ticking off things on his list and adding more as he continued poking and prodding at the machine.

Papyrus contented himself with watching the other skeleton go about his business, awed by the change in demeanor. It was actually impressive how just a little change in stature made the other look almost different. Now that he paid more attention, this Sans was a little taller than his own brother; when he stood up straight. The top of his Sans’ head almost reaching his shoulders instead of the middle of his chest. _If I bent down, I could easily kiss the top of his skull…_

Papyrus’ eyes snapped wide as the thought passed through his mind. Quickly he shook it away, face suddenly warm and immediately he shifted away to flip though some loose papers scattered on the desk.

He slowly read the documents penned in his brother’s agreeable handwriting, but even if he could read it, nothing made sense to him. He did catch a few words, ‘resets’, ‘timelines’, ‘core’, and a few other words. The referencing to a W.D. Gaster was quite prominent across the pages. Papyrus only vaguely recalled the name as the Royal Scientist that had disappeared several years ago, shortly before the first human had come to the underground.

Putting the sheets aside, Papyrus moved forward, looking at the blueprint, he could appreciate the detail in the drawing. The mathematical formulae completely over his head; he was never one for quantum physics as his brother had been.  Putting the blueprint back down, Papyrus picked up another sheet with a large wall of text and began reading aloud:

“With the assistance of human DETERMINATION, it may be possible for the time machine to even produce similar effects of a reset. Ideally, it could be used to reset and even stop resets from happening. Regrettably, DETERMINATION is a commodity that is difficult to come by.

“Perhaps a human soul would—“

Papyrus jumped as suddenly the sheet was ripped out of his hand. If it wasn’t for the strange look that Sans was giving him, he might have been annoyed, but as it was, he was completely confused. Why was Sans giving him that look?

“You…can read this?” Sans questioned, slowly glancing at the paper before turning his attention back to the taller skeleton, wonder still present in his eyes. Since there was no sign of annoyance or negativity in his eyes, Papyrus simply shrugged.

“I would assume so since I was just reading it. Why is that such a surprise?” he questioned, confused as to why him being able to read a piece of paper was so odd. He knew some people thought he was an idiot, but really?

Sans quickly shook his head, seeming to realize the other’s thoughts before turning the page around and holding it up so that Papyrus could see exactly what he had been reading.

The paper was white and rather normal in appearance except for the one defining characteristic: all the writing was—instead of typical letters, comprised of various little symbols. Multiple boxes, a diamond, some strange arrows and squiggles. Hands pointing in various directions. A mailbox or two…

Papyrus reached back for the paper and took it from Sans, his head cocked to the side curiously. He never recalled seeing such a strange text before, so how had he been able to read it?

“I… I don’t understand…”

Sans shook his head once more, not fully comprehending it either. There was only  two things that would make sense.

“Either your brother taught you the alphabet or you had learned it at some point, but forgot about it. That’s the only explanation I can think of.   Those characters are a made up language designed by the Royal Scientist Dr. Gaster to keep his research hidden from prying eyes. Only a select few were even allowed to see it.”

Papyrus swallowed and nodded, understanding the other’s words, but still he was curious.

“Then how do you know about it?”

How did he know about it? He worked with Gaster, he knew that much, but had be really been important enough that Dr. Gaster had entrusted him with his own code?

Sans looked away, feeling the tell-tale chills of those ghostly hands reaching for him, but thankfully not touching him, “I believe I used to work for him…for a time. It…it was a long time ago. I don’t really remember much about that time…” The flash of a room with large test tubes. Papyrus and him as children; Papyrus pouting as he pointed at a monster inside one of the test tubes. Papyrus yelling at him outside the lab in Hotland… Another loud buzz in the back of his skull. A warning he realized.

Sans let out a small gasp before shaking the images from his mind, he raised a hand and rubbed over his face, “Sorry about that… It sort of hurts to think about that time too much…”

The taller skeleton quickly shook his hands in front of Sans, paper flapping a bit before Papyrus set it down. “It’s no problem, Sans! We should probably rest soon. Perhaps the stress of the machine is getting to you?”

The shorter skeleton let out a snort before shaking his head, “I thought I was supposed to be the lazy one and you the busy-bones. Don’t tell me that I’m wearing off on ya, already.” Sans gave the other a mischievous look and a flash of a grin, taunting the younger monster.

Papyrus’s face flushed orange at the other’s teasing look and quickly stamped the sudden aching of his soul down. He did not need to start finding this Sans attractive, though he already knew he did. He was pretty much the splitting image of his brother if it wasn’t for the crack in his skull.  Absently he wondered if it hurt. Sans hadn’t really shown that much pain over it, but it certainly didn’t look comfortable.

Had he really just ignored it all this time?

Papyrus reached out, fingers brushing along the rough edges where the crack split the left socket of Sans’ eye. Sans almost leaned into the touch before quickly turning away from the outstretched fingers, startling the taller skeleton to retreating his hand.

Facing away from Papyrus, Sans swallowed hard, feeling the heat creeping along his ribs from the tender way that Papyrus had touched him. He really didn’t need that right now. He didn’t want Papyrus’ pity and he could feel the guilt wash over him from the fact that he almost let the other caress him like that.

It was bad enough that he already had feelings for his brother, but to go behind his back and let _another_ Papyrus touch him like that? That was being unfaithful and Sans mentally kicked himself for it. He had been getting too friendly with this Papyrus and really, he needed to hurry up and get out of this timeline and back into his own before he made some terrible mistake.

“A-A break sounds good. Just let me grab a few of these notes and we can go over them in the house. It’s…it’s kind of cold out here anyway…” he rambled on, quickly picking up a few scrolls of papers, stuffed the list of material in his pocket, and snatched up the blueprint, leaving the document littered in Wingdings to Papyrus.

With his arms full of notebooks and rolled up research notes, most of which he doubt he actually needed but was in desperate need to do _something_ to distract himself, Sans made his way back to the laboratory door. Papyrus quickly caught up to him and held the door open for the smaller skeleton.

“Th-thanks…” Sans muttered beneath his breath, face still faintly flushed in shame as he squeezed passed the lanky monster, careful not to drop the bundle in his hands.  As he made his way out of the room, he waited for Papyrus to shut to door, “Ah, the key’s in my pocket.”

Papyrus silently nodded and retrieved the key, locked the door and gave Sans a small, nervous smile, “Sans…I’m sorry. It’ kind of hard—“

“I know. I’m not blaming you I…I just have to work through my own shit, okay? It’s not your fault, remember that, okay?” he reassured, trying his best to give Papyrus a genuine smile, of course it fell flat like most he attempted. Nonetheless, Papyrus returned the smile, squeezed Sans’ shoulder before waving an arm in front of him.

“Shall we? I’ll make us some tea and then we can look over those notes, sound good?” It really didn’t.  He would much rather him and Sans just watch some more MTTV or do something else together.  _Anything but work on the machine_ …  But that was selfish of him and he couldn’t take back his promise just like that.

Sans smiled, for real this time, and stepped ahead, “Sure thing.”  He stepped forward and around the side of the house, Papyrus quickly getting ahead of him with those long legs of his.

Abruptly Papyrus stopped, eyes wide in fear as the unmistakable figure of Undyne came into view. His mouth opened as he saw the warrior’s eye flicker over to Sans, startled for a moment, before pure rage flashed across her face. _N-no…_

“W-wait, Undyne! Please—“ The taller skeleton whined, hands thrown out in front of Sans a little too late as blue darted forward. The chubby monster’s sockets snapping wide before a powerful fist collided right into his nose.


	12. Amnesia

**Amnesia**

 

Papers went flying into the air as Sans was sent to the ground, his body sliding on the snow and thin layer of ice as Undyne’s fist connected with his skull. He rolled several feet before finally stopping, Sans’ limbs tossed about the ground in awkward angles.

Sans’ magic flared up once again, his eye leaking blue-black, bubbling magic as he let out a painful groan. He trembled, but otherwise remained where he had fallen, far too dazed to push himself up.

 “SANS!”

Papyrus’ soul lurched in his chest as he ran to Sans’ side, shoving past Undyne before he dropped to his knees at the other skeleton’s side. He could feel the rapid pulsing of adrenaline pumping through his bones as he summoned up his magic, his hands instantly moving to Sans’ face. His right eye lit up with bright, orange magic as he eased his fingers into where a bits of bone had scraped free. Surveying the damage, Papyrus gave a soft hiss before gently urging his magic to the other’s wound, sealing up the small fissures were knuckle collided with bone, a bit of blood sticking to his fingers.

At having his face prodded at—because that’s what it felt like—San let out a hiss, recoiling from Papyrus’ hand only for the skeleton in question to give a soft ‘tsk’ and hold him still. If he wasn’t so out of it, Sans would have noticed how Papyrus had shifted his long legs over his body to hold him in place.

Distantly, Sans was aware that Papyrus was saying something, hushed but frantic tones hitting his non-ears as his vision blurred in and out of focus. Finally, the magic faded from his eye as he relaxed into the other’s hold, the warm, soothing magic healing him. _Almost like a massage…_ he managed to think between trying not to pass out and/or vomit.

Papyrus trembled as he continued healing Sans, fingers gliding as tenderly as he could over the other’s face. He watched as, slowly, the wounds began to mend. His mouth opening and closing on a desperate chant, “Oh my star…O-One HP… _one... one…”_ Finally after several minutes of healing, Sans pushed himself up, a hand moving to gingerly press at the site of the injury. His vision continued to spin, but was otherwise clear.

Sans let out a groan before looking up at Papyrus, and furrowed his brow, seeing double for a moment before finally the two images of Papyrus merged and revealed a deeply annoyed look alike of his brother.

With a huff, Papyrus swatted Sans’ hand from his face and moved his legs off the smaller skeleton, “Don’t touch it, Sans! Do you realize that you almost—You could have—!” Papyrus let out an aggravated sound that broke off into a painful whine. He flailed his hands about for a moment before he settled down, his erratic soul finally evening out.

Holding his fingers up and promptly ignoring the fact that some of Sans’ blood coated the tips of his phalanges, Papyrus gave his hand a little wave in front of the other’s face.

“Sans, how many fingers am I holding up?” He asked, trying to keep his voice level but Papyrus knew that some of his anger was seeping through. He only hoped Sans wouldn’t blame him for that. _One louse Hit Point and Undyne just—_

No he had to keep calm right now. He would handle Undyne after he made sure that Sans was okay. That was what mattered right now.

Despite his vision clearing, Sans still felt a little dizzy. With a groan, Sans pressed a hand to the side of his head and looked to Papyrus’ hands only to respond with a lazy grunt.

“Ugh…If you’d stop moving about so much, I could tell you…” He replied, clenching his teeth tighter, his voice low and raspy as if trying to fight off his increasing headache.

Papyrus gave a quick nod before steading his arm as best he could while trying to fight off the urge to lash out at Undyne, his body still trembling in anger and fear for the other skeleton.

“Three fingers, Paps. I’m fine… Just…Shit…” Sans replied, eyes settling on Undyne who had been standing several feet away where she had been when she sent Sans’ flying back as if he’d bene hit with a wrecking ball. She still looked pissed.

 “What the hell was that for?” Sans growled out as Papyrus let out a relieved sigh and hopped to his feet. The Royal Guard in Training stomped over to Undyne, fists clenched at his sides as he forced himself not to just lash out at the woman. While he wouldn’t hit her, he wanted to shake her senseless right there, but he pushed it down.

At some point during the exchange, a small trickle of monsters had made their way out of their home or wherever they had been to watch what was going on with curiosity.  A few gasped as they recognized Sans on the ground, apparently not getting the memo that he was ‘back’. Papyrus ignored them all as he stopped right in front of the fish monster, teeth clamped tight before he couldn’t stand it anymore.

“WHAT IN THE UNDERGROUND IS _WRONG_ WITH YOU?” Papyrus snapped, his face lit orange as he no longer tried to reign in his temper. His fists trembling at his sides only shook more when Undyne just stared at him, a dumbstruck look across her face at being yelled at, by papyrus no less! Papyrus let out a frustrated yell, stamping his foot on the ground before throwing his arms up in the air and flailed them about.

“WELL!? ANSWER ME!” Papyrus continued, his bones buzzing with magic that begged to be released. Begged to get rid of the perceived threat.

At that, Undyne finally came back to her senses and her lips curled up in a snarl, brows furrowed. She jabbed a finger into Papyrus’ chest and bared her teeth, “What do you mean ‘What is wrong with me’?! You’re an idiot! Your damn brother just waltzes back into your after abandoning you for over a _year_ and you just welcome him back with open arms? If you ask me, he deserved more than just a punch in the face!”

Papyrus let out a scream and stepped away from Undyne, stamping heavy footprints into the snow as he paced in a tight circle before throwing his arms back in the air and clawed at the top of his skull as if trying to pull the non-existent hair from out of his head.

“ONE HP, UNDYNE! SANS ONLY HAS ONE HP! ONE! DO YOU EVEN REALIZE YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HIM?!”

Undyne narrowed her eyes, flicking her gaze over to where Sans was just now pushing himself to his feet, wobbling on unsteady legs.

“Psst, he’s not that weak Papyrus. As if I’d let something like that happen anyway—“

“ONE HP! DO YOU NOT EVEN REALIZE YOUR OWN STRENGTH?  IT’S A MIRACLE HE DIDN’T JUST DUST RIGHT THERE!” Papyrus growled out, tears starting to swell in his sockets.

Undyne let out a small snarl of her own before crossing her arms across her chest and looked away, no longer able to meet Papyrus’ eyes, “…Okay! Okay! I could have dusted him. You know that I wouldn’t do that on purpose though, right?” She voiced, looking toward the ground in a rare show of shame. She really could have fucked things up bif time, couldn’t she? The aquatic monster swallowed hard before, slowly, letting hr eyes slide back to Papyrus’.

“Still, he shouldn’t have just abandoned you, Paps—“

“HE DOESN’T REMEMBER DOING THAT!”

Undyne’s eyes snapped open just as Sans whipped his head around, confusion written on his face as he tried to make sense of Papyrus’ words.

“What?” Sans broke in, stumbling forward to stand next to his ‘brother’. What was this about him not remembering?

Catching himself, Papyrus quickly back tracked and then it was his turn to look away, staring intently at the snow beneath his feet. He had done it again, didn’t he?

“Uh…A-Amnesia… Sans has amnesia…” Stars…he felt sick. He hated lying and he had done it again. _When will I just stop?_ Papyrus wished he knew.

Undyne looked back toward Sans, eyes widening as she finally caught sight of the large, jagged edges of the crack along Sans’ skull. She stepped forward before Papyrus quickly sidestepped in front of her, not wanting her near Sans right now, even if she apologize. Well, as best as she could, he supposed.

“Shit… Did I do that?” She questioned. When Sans looked at her with even more confusion, she made a motion that vaguely resembled the crack along her own head.

Sans’ permanent grin twitched, a little annoyed that Undyne couldn’t just say it out right. Nonetheless, Sans shook his head only to bite back a cry of pain, “Nn... N-No…You didn’t do it, but seriously. What the fuck, Undyne…? Ever heard of asking questions first, hitting later?”

Papyrus whipped around at hearing Sans so close and tossed his arms back up, incredulous that Sans was already up on his feet again and that Undyne was taking the fact she had almost _killed_ Sans so calmly. The skeleton sputtered a few seconds before bending down and quickly gathering up the small bundle of bones, earning a squeak from the chubby monster for his troubles.

Sans quickly grabbed at Papyrus, digging fingers into the other’s shoulders, legs instinctually wrapping around the other’s frame and crossing behind Papyrus’ back, trying to keep himself from falling out of the other’s arms and back onto the cold ground.

“P-Papyrus! What are you doing?” he stammered, trying to get out of the other’s grip despite the fact he just wound himself around the other’s frame. He couldn’t help his instinct after all.

 Papyrus simply ignored him and began to gently rub the other’s back before turning back to glare at Undyne, magic finally dissipating before letting out a rugged sigh.

“Will you please just explain why in the stars you thought you needed to hit my brother?” Papyrus groaned. He stopped rubbing Sans’ back to  pinch the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, his other arm tucked under Sans’ femurs, holding him safely in place.

The royal guard swallowed hard and looked away, a little embarrassed and ashamed. _As she should be_ , Papyrus thought as he waited for a response.

“He left you, Papyrus. He _hurt_ you and just… just walks back in your life as if nothing happened. Like nothing is _wrong_ or _twisted_ about that? He didn’t see how badly you were broken down, Paps…” Undyne explained, rubbing the back of her neck, voice tired and low as if the conversation was taking just as much out of her as it did Papyrus.

The taller skeleton let out a sigh, shaking his head. How was he supposed to put this into words she would understand.

“As I said, he has am-amnesia. He didn’t mean to. Besides,  if Alphys just disappeared one day and randomly came back, you would hit her without asking why?”

Undyne stumbled back, eye wide, hands thrust in front of her in a surrendering position, “What? No! O-Of course… I’d probably yell a bit… That… If she left it would scare me but I wouldn’t hit her!”

“This is the same thing. It’s not his fault…”Papyrus replied, looking away from his friend and toward the ground once more, ashamed of himself. His arms tightening around Sans as he felt the other cling tighter to him wit ha reassuring hug. Papyrus was surprised that the smaller monster hadn’t simply passed out after being picked up. That’s what his Sans did… He quickly shook the thought from his mind as he turned back to the conversation.

The woman let out a sigh and pinched at her brows before crossing her arms once more, trying not to raise her voice again. They were attracting a crowed and normally, she’d yell at the others to buzz off but she couldn’t find herself caring too much at the moment.

“None of this fucking adds up, Papyrus.”

Papyrus swallowed thickly, eyes trailing to the side of Sans’ head and catching on the crack that split almost a good one hundred and forty degrees across his skull. He wondered idly if it ever hurt Sans. He never said anything about it, but he did scratch at it often, Papyrus had noticed.

“He…um… has head trauma…”

Sans sat up a little at that before Papyrus pushed him back down, ignoring the incredulous tone in the other’s voice before being shut up.

Undyne shifted on her feet, arms still crossed and a brow quirked up, skeptical, “Are you serious? He doesn’t really act like he—“

“Have you ever met anyone with amnesia?” Papyrus quickly butted in, rubbing at Sans back, calming down when the smaller skeleton leaned in closer, skull bumping gently against his own. Somehow, the action calmed Papyrus down despite the way his soul felt like it was going to rip free from his chest.

Undyne let a huff and rolled her eye, “Well, no…” She replied remembering the crack in Sans’ skull. Head trauma was a common cause of amnesia though, she knew that much. She supposed it really wasn’t too farfetched with how bad the wound looked. Undyne let out a sigh and let her arms droop a little, a clawed hand smoothing over her arm guiltily.

“ ‘No’—“

“Okay I get it , Papyrus! God! I’m sorry okay? I was just really worried about you. When you came to me the other day and told me he was back, do you have any clue how much I had to hold myself back to not just jump up and wreck him right then and there?” She explained, glaring at one of rabbit family members when they tried to get closer to the trio.

“You were a mess when he left. I’ve never been so scared for you as much as I was for you then, Paps. I just… I just didn’t want you to get hurt again. You’ve been so much better these last couple months. I couldn’t see you go back to how you were before, okay?”

Papyrus swallowed hard, still avoiding Undyne’s gaze. He felt guilty for lying and perhaps a little bad for yelling at her. He felt maybe he had been a little too harsh, but at the same time he didn’t regret it.

You simply didn’t just outright attack someone like that! _Especially my brother!_ He couldn’t believe that she had done that even if he had seen it with his own eyes. She had practically grown up alongside Sans as well! She had spent a lot of time at their house, he had even let her stay the night when most parents wouldn’t let friends the same gender stay the night. Of course, Sans wasn’t exactly a normal parent and this Sans wasn’t exactly the same Sans as Undyne thought he was.

He supposed he should be glad he has such a devoted friend—which he was! Just, sometimes her temper could get way out of hand.  Things could have potentially went horribly wrong.

 “I… I know…I really appreciate what you and Alphys has done for me. Really, but…Please don’t take it out on Sans again he…he did nothing wrong…” Papyrus added, a shaky sigh leaving his mouth as he curled his fingers into Sans’ T-shirt. He felt Sans mimic the gesture behind him, his other hand giving soothing strokes down Papyrus’ spine.

Papyrus trembled lightly at the touch, face warming a little at the sentiment. It felt…nice...to be cared for again. _Even if I’m not his—_ Papyrus quickly put an end to that thought, already having enough on his plate as it was.

Silence spread for what felt like an eternity before Sans cleared his throat.

“Sorry to uh, butt in, but we are kind of drawing a crowd,” Sans spoke up, hands still busy with calming the taller monster down. His eyes watching the increasing crowd nervously.

He wasn’t exactly comfortable around these monsters. They were all familiar to him, yet he didn’t know anything about them. He worried that they would see through this ruse that he and Papyrus had unintentionally found themselves in. It was a flimsy one at best.

Papyrus gave a quizzical hum before turning around, eyes widening as he took in the other towns people. He gave a little sound of annoyance before giving them a dismissive wave, “Uh! Y-Yes um…Sans is back but he’s still not feeling too great so uh…We will be… going…now…”

The taller skeleton quickly backed up, making his way back to the door of their house, giving Undyne a quick glance, telling her that they weren’t done talking. Sans chuckles softly , eyes gliding over to  where he saw Grillby among the crowd of monsters.  Papyrus opened the door to their house and quickly stepped into it.

Undyne rushed to gather up all the papers that Sans had dropped when she had punched him and followed the brothers to the house.

Papyrus let her in and made his way to the couch and crouched down so that Sans could unwind himself from the lankier skeleton. Sans eased himself onto the couch, glancing up at Papyrus as the other monster stood back up. A warmth lit his face up, face peppered in blue as he quickly looked away, “Uh, th-thanks, Paps… For …well everything really… You didn’t have to lie for me or any—“

Papyrus quickly put a boney finger over the other’s teeth, eyes wide as he glanced over to Undyne, “We can talk about it later, okay? First we need to handle this um...little mishap, okay?”

Slowly, Sans nodded his head, eyes quickly avoiding Papyrus’ as he relaxed into the couch. He wasn’t ever going to get used to how easily this Papyrus could lie. It almost sickened him, but he supposed he could see why he did it. He just wasn’t entirely sure why he was still lying. He had accepted his brother’s death, right? Why was he making up excuses and pretending that _he_ was his brother instead of just admitting to everyone that his Sans had died?

Sans let out a sigh and turned back to the other skeleton and tried to give a smile, but as usual, it didn’t quite reach his eyes, “Okay, Paps… be careful, alright? I’ll just be…y’know…”

Papyrus gave Sans a slow nod before turning back to where Undyne was setting the papers on the table. With a sigh, Papyrus wrapped his arms across his chest taking a moment to think things through before he would approach Undyne.

Undyne quickly turned around and gave a weary glance toward the two skeletons, still completely lost on what exactly she should say. Sans had some amnesia shit and that would explain the crack in his head, but she still didn’t completely buy it. There were too many loose ends such as _why_ Sans had left in the first place. Did he have the amnesia or whatever _before_ he left or after? If it was before, then why didn’t Papyrus ever mention it before? None of this sat right with her and she wanted to get to the bottom of it.

Still, it was almost nice to see the two brothers back together, even if she was still furious over the fact that Sans had hurt her best friend. She couldn’t help but relax a little though, seeing how Papyrus was allowing physical contact again. Then again, it was Sans and the lazy bag of bones was just as clingy as he had been before he disappeared.

She wondered how exactly the two hadn’t realized the chemistry  between them during all the years they had been together. To her, it was more than obvious that they shared _something._ She wasn’t completely sure though. Sans was a private person and Papyrus was naïve to a fault. Though after Sans’ disappearance, Undyne had picked up that maybe Papyrus wasn’t as clueless as she had initially thought. He was far more observational than she gave him credit for, yet… _Maybe they know and don’t act because they are brothers?_ Scattering her thoughts to the wind, Undyne glanced between the two brothers once more before she let out a sigh.

Stepping forward, Undyne crossed her arms once more, temper quelled as she approached Papyrus. Taking a steadying breath, she put a hand on Papyrus’ shoulder, gaining his attention.

“Start explaining, and don’t leave anything out, got it?”

Papyrus’ eyes flicked toward Sans, catching his gaze before he flopped back in the couch next to Sans. His posture a far cry from the confidence he once had over a year ago.

“Oh my stars…Where do I even begin?”

 


	13. Lies

**Lies**

 

The room was filled with a stifling silence as Papyrus curled himself further into the couch. He pulled his slender legs onto the cushion and wrapped his arms around his femurs, his graceful face twisting into a prominent pout.

How was he supposed to bring up what had happened without actually bringing up what _happened_? His brother was gone, yes, but no one but him and now this new Sans knew the extent of how gone his brother really was. _Everyone else thinks that he’s on some dumb quest…_

 Papyrus swallowed and timidly glanced toward Sans before clicking his teeth shut and took a deep breath. He already started another lie and it ate at the lanky monster’s bones. He had to make up even more stories now. _Is this really what I’ve been reduced to? Some dirty liar? But…_ It was better than the alternative.

Undyne was his friend, that much he knew, but the fear of her finding out about his lies and thinking he was no longer worthy of the title was something he couldn’t live with; so he exhaled and sat up straighter. It was now or never.

“When the human came last year they… attacked and k-killed several monsters. You remember that,” Papyrus began wringing his fingers together nervously.

Undyne simply nodded. She remembered that whole fiasco. She was glad that shit was done and over with, even if they had lost a lot of good monsters in that battle. She and the rest of the Dog gang still missed Lesser Dog. At least he died with his shield in his hand fighting for good people.

“Sans he…” Papyrus glanced back over to the other skeleton, catching Sans’ gaze and quickly glanced away from the strange glimmer in his sockets. He didn’t like that look. _Like he’s disappointed in me…I don’t blame him. I am too…_

Clearing his non-existent throat.

“We fought the human and I… I was too weak. I didn’t want to hurt the human and he protected me,” Papyrus , once again, flicked his gaze back to Sans, uncomfortable with the way that Sans stared at him but he ignored it. Instead, he focused on the split in Sans’ skull and continued.

“The human attacked him and they...they cracked his skull and he…p-passed out... I… thought we were going to die but then Frisk—they intercepted and ended up defeating the other human. At least I think that’s how Chara was defeated. When Frisk jumped in the way, I grabbed Sans and ran off… I brought him home and the next morning he was g-gone…”

Undyne furrowed her brows, looking a little annoyed as she tried to process the information. Something felt off about the explanation, but after searching her own memory, she couldn’t find anything out of place.

When the human had shown up from beyond the ruins, she had been all the way in the capital and had—unfortunately, been unable to make it back in time. She had instead rushed as fast as she could to Snowdin, but by the time she had made it to the small town, Frisk had beaten her there.

And everyone knew that Frisk had saved the Underground from the demonic, violent creature that was Chara. If it hadn’t been for Frisk, the entire Underground would have fallen at the creature’s hands. They had lost so many innocent monsters, the late Prince Asriel being one of the most well-known casualties.

Instead of fighting the human, Undyne ended up being in charge of directing the restoration team in finding and healing monsters that had been harmed by the human. As for those that had died? There had been so many piles of dust left that it was impossible to distinguish one monster from another.

There had been too many casualties to go through with the traditional funeral ceremony of scattering the dust of a dead monster on their most beloved things. Instead, the consensus had been to release the dust to the wind and let the breeze spread the monsters’ remains. No one liked it, but there had been no other choice.

Undyne released a sigh and pinched at the bridge of her nose. Sans was now looking away, his eyes fixed on the far wall, pointedly not looking at Papyrus. The taller skeleton swallowed hard, unable to push down the shame that bubbled in the marrow of his bones.

Papyrus continued to wring his hands, waiting for Undyne to call him out on the horrible lie. Something— _anything—_ to snap him out of this cowardly route, but when she dropped her arms at her side, Papyrus knew that she had fallen for it. Guilt washed over him as he had once again taken his friend’s trust for granted. He hated himself for it. _What would Sans think if he saw me now?_

“I’m sorry, Papyrus. But what—” she paused, a confused light coming over her face as if she was trying to puzzle out something within her own head. She shook whatever it was away before rubbing at her arm.

“What is the extent of his memory loss?”

Papyrus’ eyes widened, caught off guard by the question. He…he honestly hadn’t expected her to ask much more about it. He hadn’t been prepared for it and therefore had no answer. He couldn’t help but flush in embarrassment.

Sans’ white irises slid to his ‘brother’ noticing how the other had locked up and the smaller skeleton quickly butt into the conversation.

“Actually, he…We don’t know yet how much I have forgotten yet. I do remember names and things like that. I know Papyrus is my brother and you are his best friend. Alphys is the Royal Scientist in Hotland—“ He hoped he had that one right, “I know the name of the towns: Snowdin, Waterfall, Hotland, and New Home, but other than that? I don’t remember much…” Sans explained, rubbing the back of his head. He at least had confidence in his lying capabilities. _I’ve had plenty of fucking practice with_ that _…_

Undyne nodded her head and let out an explosive groan. Her hands reaching up to tug a little at the fins on the side of her head in frustration. Sans couldn’t imagine that being too comfortable, but he was well a little too well acquainted with ticks that helped with stress so he couldn’t exactly judge her.

“This is such bullshit! I can’t believe you really forgot so much!” Undyne groaned out, teeth gnashing a bit before dropping her arms and stood up straighter. Her mouth twisted in a grin and suddenly she looked resolved, almost as if she had something akin to human determination coursing through her veins.

Papyrus flinched back from his friend’s sudden outburst, fear in his sockets as his mind raced. _She doesn’t believe us! She’s going to stop being frien—_

Sans quickly placed a hand on Papyrus’ shoulder, easing the taller monster into leaning against his chest. Silently, Sans rubbed soothing circles over his ‘brother’s’ arm, encouraging him to calm down and whispered a soft, ‘Let me handle this,’ where his ear would have been had they any.

Thankfully, Papyrus relaxed against his hold and gave a minute nod. Sans noticed that even still, Papyrus’ beautiful face was still stained with worry lines and bags under his sockets—as much as a skeleton’s face could be anyway. Quickly, he backtracked over his thoughts, face warming a little in guilt. _‘Beautiful’?_

Well he wasn’t wrong. This Papyrus shared the same facial features of his own brother, except his eyes were darker with the things he had seen that his own Papyrus hadn’t, but otherwise they were nearly identical. Of _course_ , he was attractive, but that was no excuse!

Undyne stared at the two brothers expectantly, hands on her hip as she tapped her foot impatiently. Papyrus shrunk from the intense gaze of the fish monster and frantically looked toward Sans. Unfortunately, Sans had been lost in his own thoughts and had missed what the royal guard had said.

“Sorry, Undyne, didn’t quite catch that,” Sans replied, waving a hand absently at the crack in his skull, “I’m still a little _scatter brained_. Mind repeating that?” he replied calmly, grin twitching to life at the joke. He knew it was weak, but what could he say? Even the best comedians _cracked_ at some point. The disbelieving groan that left Papyrus’ mouth was enough to pull a chuckle from his own teeth. It was almost as if things were going back to have they used to be.

 _‘Used to be’?_ Sans shoved the thought down violently as Undyne spoke up again with a huff.

“I _said_ that if that’s the case, then we have a lot of work ahead of us! Slumber parties! Outings! _Patrols_! I could invite Alphys along  and we could get all the confusion sorted out and you’ll be as good as new!” The woman called out, a grin plastered across her face, her hands perched on her hips proudly as she glanced between the two brothers. Now _this_ was an incident she could enjoy!

Papyrus’ eyes snapped open and he shot up, hands quickly motioning in front of him.

“W-Wait, Undyne! I don’t think that a uh… _patrol_ is really going to help him much. I mean, he’s still Sans!” Papyrus called out, soul pounding in his chest. The words caught up to him and he couldn’t help but tremble.

It was true. Sans really was still Sans, just not _his_ Sans. But…

There were a remarkable amount of similarities between the two Sanses.

They both seemed to care about him, _even if this Sans doesn’t really have to, he does…_ They both were interested in science. They both were lazy—though this Sans _did_ do a little more around the house than his own brother did. However, Papyrus had yet to see how this Sans interacted with the people outside of the house to judge how he reacted around them. He felt a little guilty about that, but with the incident minutes ago, he supposed that it was counterproductive for him to keep Sans inside now. Everyone knew he was back at this point, so what use would keeping him in the house be?

Thinking about it, Papyrus let his mind wander, not wanting to focus on the real problem of the patrols.

What about other Sanses? If there was his Sans and this other Sans and they were so similar, yet still a few differences. There were different timelines, right? What if there were a countless number of timelines? A countless number of Sanses. A countless number of Papyruses? Did that mean that in every timeline there was a distinct counterpart to him and his brother? Distinct counterparts for everyone in their life? In their _timeline_?

So essentially, wouldn’t that mean that they are the same person? That this new Sans was still his brother, just subtly different because of the differences in their environment and the way that they had been brought up?

Did that mean that Sans was technically still his brother? A tremor took over his body before he could hold it back. His soul thumping frantically in his chest as he turned his attention back on Sans, his eyes sliding over the other’s frame. He felt his face and chest heating up as he realized that even if they were different, they really were so alike. _I wonder if they feel the same…_

Papyrus dashed his thoughts into the ground just as Undyne spoke up, his eyes darting to meet hers as she crossed her arms once again. His soul still pounded away in his chest as he tried to focus on what his friend was saying. He almost wished he hadn’t.

“It’s not because you’ve dropped out of the royal guard, is it? You know that isn’t a problem, right? We can easily put you back on the payroll.”

Sans’ eyes widened at the woman’s words, “You were in the Royal Guard, Paps?”

Papyrus quickly shook his head, hands waving frantically, “No! I mean… I was still in training. I got paid to do patrols and such like regular members, but I hadn’t been sworn in. I wasn’t really a real member yet…”

“Might as well have been! You did good work, Papyrus and you know it!”

The taller brother looked away and shrank back against Sans, welcoming the gentle touch of the other skeleton’s hands on his own.

“I don’t know… I couldn’t even fight the human properly. I failed and … and now….” He took a breath and slowly exhaled. _And now Sans is dead…_

“That human is dead now and I don’t want to talk about it. Besides, I quit and I don’t plan to return anytime soon. I’m…I’m much better suited to the domestic life anyway…” Papyrus muttered under his breath.

Undyne couldn’t deny that even if Papyrus had meant it in a negative light, he wasn’t entirely wrong.

Papyrus was an excellent cook. Kept up with housework better than any other monster she had ever known and he genuinely cared about people. He’d make a monster real happy one day, she knew that. Unfortunately, she also knew that being cooped up indoors all the time would eventually get to the other monster. It wasn’t a life Papyrus was made for. He was a monster of energy and adventure. A monster made to enjoy all that life had to offer, not to be stuck inside a house and left to go stir crazy.

The fish monster let out a sigh and dropped her arms once more.

“Papyrus… We’ve talked about this. You are not a failure, okay? You couldn’t have known what the human would be like. We cant expect all humans to be like our Frisk. The Royal Guard is perfect for you. You just need the right kind of job within it. Sure, the front lines isn’t for you, but there are other positions—“

“NO! I already told you I don’t want to go back! Okay? Please…please just drop it…”

Sans squeezed gently at Papyrus’ hand, rubbing his thumb over the top of the other’s hand reassuringly. He leaned in, his forehead softly clanking against Papyrus’ cheekbone.

 “Papyrus? Maybe she’s—“

“Please drop it, Sans…” The skeleton muttered, looking away from his ‘brother’. Sans quieted down and nodded his head hesitantly.

It…was heartbreaking how much Papyrus seemed to dislike the idea of the Royal Guard now. If this Papyrus was anything like his own brother, then he had to at one point  been unwaveringly dedicated to becoming a member of the guard. Did losing Sans really change that much?  _My Papyrus would have only been more set in becoming a Royal Guardsman if I died…right?_  

He hated the fact that he wasn’t exactly sure _what_ his Papyrus would have done in that situation. Every time he had died before his Papyrus, he hadn’t been there to see how the world played out. _Just that it was inevitably reset_ …

Now that he thought about it, this time line was a little peculiar.

Not only in the cosmetic differences between this one and his own, but in the fact that this timeline had moved on even after his (well the him from this timeline) death. This Sans had died and the timeline had went on without him.

Papyrus lived on. Toriel was evidently alive. Asgore remained king. Undyne and Alphys were alive. _Only I died…_

Sans hadn’t been aware that he had started shaking, his breaths heavy and uneven, until Papyrus’ hand on his own startled him out of his thoughts. Sans let out a shaky breath and gave the other a smile, hoping to whatever stars there were above that he looked genuine.

It didn’t.

Papyrus looked into Sans’ eyes giving out a huff when Sans’ darted away.

“Sans…Are you alright?” The taller skeleton murmured, removing his hand to caress the other’s face, tilting the smaller brother’s head up and began to look him over. _Perhaps I missed something when I was checking him over earlier…_ But nothing seemed wrong other than the rapid flickering of his pupils. The healing should have helped with any concussion he may have gotten, so that couldn’t be an issue.

Undyne stepped forward and shoved her face into Sans’ as well and gave a hum, “He does look a little dazed.” She stated before Sans quickly tossed his arms out and pushed both of the crowding monsters back.

“H-heh. I’m fine. Really. I’m just chilled to the bone’s all. But really, it’s _snow_ problem,” Sans chuckled out, hoping that the other two bought it.

The leader of the Royal Guard rolled her eye but stepped back, either believing him or not concerned enough to bother. Knowing Undyne—or at least the Undyne from his timeline; Sans wouldn’t put it past her to just not care. Not to say that Undyne didn’t care about people, just her moral scope was a little skewed compared to most monsters.

Papyrus on the other hand did not believe him one bit if the way that he was looking at him was any indication. The taller skeleton continued watching Sans until, thankfully, Undyne spoke up.

“Either way, do you think that I could speak to Papyrus alone for a moment, Sans? It’s something important that I don’t know if he is ready for you to know about yet,” she spoke up, scratching absently at her cheek.

Sans tensed for a moment before relaxing once again.

He wasn’t exactly keen on letting the woman that had attacked him be alone with Papyrus. He knew that she wouldn’t ever hurt his brother, but the thought didn’t do much to comfort him when his magic was already on edge. _My brother’s look alike,_ Sans corrected himself.  Before he felt Papyrus pull away from him.

“It’s okay, Sans. How about you go upstairs and rest a bit? I’m sure that you’re probably exhausted after all this…” Papyrus twirled his hand in front of him, a motion that was very unlike his own Papyrus that Sans couldn’t help but focus on it for a moment. Even so, the meaning behind it not lost on him.

“Drama?” Sans asked.

“Yes! All this drama! Thank you, Sans. I’ll be upstairs once Undyne and I are done talking, alright?”

No. It wasn’t alright, but Sans couldn’t just say that. He couldn’t exactly explain why he found it such a problem anyway. This wasn’t his Papyrus—something that he made sure to remind himself of countless times already. He didn’t know why he kept finding himself drawn to the other. Quietly, Sans chalked it up to the uncanny similarities and dismissed the topic.

Sans let his gaze shift between the two friends until he finally let out a sigh and slid off the couch onto still-bare feet.

“Yeah, sounds good, br-….bro.” Sans quickly pushed down the pleasant feeling in his chest at using the nickname. _Not my brother. Not my brother. Not my brother…_  “And hey, don’t try anything _fishy_ ,” he teased, giving Undyne a quick wink before heading up the stairs.

He couldn’t help the chuckle that built up in his throat at the way that Papyrus slipped out a small snicker before trying to mask it with a huff or the roar of disbelief from Undyne. Somethings never really changed and somehow, that thought calmed him more than Sans could have imagined.

 

 


	14. Comfort

**Comfort**

 

Papyrus watched as Sans made his way up the stairs. After the smaller skeleton disappeared behind the door with a click, Undyne was on him in a flash.

“Okay, drop the act, Papyrus.  I know you are taking this a lot worse than you’re letting on, no doubt because of that mess of a brother of yours. Spill,” the Captain of the Royal Guard huffed out, her hands planted firmly across her chest as she flopped on the couch were Sans previously had been sitting.

Papyrus quickly averted his eyes, fingers rubbing at his arms as he tried to find some excuse, but none came. Instead of stalling even longer—something he knew Undyne had grown accustomed to over the last few months—Papyrus let his arms drop to his legs as he brought them back up to his chest, realizing now that they had slipped at some point during their talk.

“I…There really isn’t much to say, Undyne. It was… a shock when Sans showed back up.  I really didn’t know how to handle it, but he’s back now and that’s all that really matters…” Papyrus began, eyes fixed on the slender and some-what elegant cluster of bone that made up his right wrist.

Undyne nodded, leaning further into the couch and let out a sigh of her own, “Yeah…I know. Things aren’t going to be easy, you know. Especially because now you have to deal with the fact he doesn’t remember anything. Er…He knew you were his brother and where you two lived, but…” Undyne scratched the top of her head, red hair shifted out of her tightly bound ponytail leaving it slightly disheveled. Whatever. She could fix it later.

Papyrus glanced in her direction, brows furrowed as he tried to figure out what she had meant by the words. ‘But’ what?

At realizing that Papyrus hadn’t caught on, the fish gave a small noise of frustration. She didn’t really know how to approach such a delicate subject. Now if they were talking about training regimes? She’d be on top of this, but trying to be gentle in her approach with raising topics that dealt with Sans was always hard for her and she couldn’t imagine it being easy for Papyrus either.

“Does he…does he remember anything from before he left?  I know he doesn’t remember the whole Grillby bullshit, but what about between you two?”

Papyrus’ face quickly heated up into an overbearing orange at the implications. Quickly he waved his arms about as if trying to scatter the words that hung in the air.

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!  We never—“

“Cut the crap! It’s obvious to everyone that you want him, Papyrus. _Everyone_ knows. You may be smart and loyal to a fault. Dedicated and strong even if you won’t let yourself believe it, but subtle? You are about as subtle as Mettaton, Paps. And as smart as he is, Sans is the only one that doesn’t see how you feel about him,” Undyne mused, a slight twitch of her lips outing the fact she was trying not to grin.

Papyrus quickly looked away, a small whine on his teeth as he buried his face into his arms and legs. Was he really that obvious? No one else had ever said anything! Did all of Snowdin really know how he felt about his brother? That…He didn’t know how to feel about that, especially now that the situation had changed. _Had Grillby really known?_ Papyrus felt a little resentment in his chest. There was no way that Grillby had known and not said anything to Sans, right?

Undyne let out a bark of a laugh at her friend’s struggles, unknowing of the other’s thoughts. It wasn’t really nice of her but damn! She really couldn’t help it when he just made it so easy for her to tease him. With a smirk, Undyne leaned forward and rubbed at the skeleton’s back in large soothing circles. There really wasn’t much surface to work with like with other non-skeletal monsters, but Papyrus’ shoulder blades were an easy enough target, thankfully too because damn. She could feel the tension coiled tight amongst the bones.

“Hey, it’s no big deal, Papyrus. You can’t exactly help who you fall for—“

Papyrus quickly shook his head and buried himself deeper into his limbs, pathetic little whining sounds leaving his mouth as he tried to hide, his face practically on fire.

“Th-That’s not the point, Undyne! I…I know I can’t help it. Believe me, I’ve tried. Things are just…things are more complicated than that, okay?” _More complicated than you’ll ever know…_ He couldn’t help but muse. Even if there was a different Sans upstairs in his brother’s room, Papyrus couldn’t help think back to where his mind had stumbled earlier.

What if there really wasn’t any drastic changes between Sans in the different timelines? They were all brothers of Papyruses and had to have a startling number of similarities. They were all the same person, right? Just a few idiosyncrasies between each other caused by the way their own world was within the timeline. _I wonder if Sans ever thought about things like this…_ Papyrus thought as he nuzzled deeper against his femur and patella.

“Well, I imagine that having a crush on your brother could be pretty complicated, but I mean… We aren’t humans, Papyrus. It’s not exactly ‘forbidden love’ like it is in Alphys’ animes. Why not just tell him?”

Papyrus shook his head again, frantically trying to erase the other’s words from his mind.

“I can’t do that, Undyne. You don’t…You don’t understand…” _This isn’t the same Sans you know. This isn’t the brother that I grew up with. This isn’t the same brother that I fell in love with… That Sans is gone…_

Undyne let out a sound of frustration, causing the skeleton to flinch. The fish monster rubbed at her nose before relaxing into the back of the beaten up couch and sighed, “I won’t push you anymore on the subject, but I know for a fact that he cares for you, Papyrus. Do you not see the way he _looks_ at you? You may not notice it since you are always worrying about one thing or another and hell, who knows what’s going on in Sans’ mind for him to not notice how _you_ look at _him._ It’s as plain as day—“

“Please stop. I… I really can’t talk about this right now,” Papyrus murmured, his voice hollow as if he was trying to distance himself from the truth of the matter. He did love his brother and Sans had already admitted to loving his Papyrus. Undyne just didn’t realize how hard it was living with someone who looked identical to the person that you had fallen in love with.

“Things are different now, Undyne. Even if I _did_ love my brother—Stars, that sounds so insane—Sans loves s-someone else anyway. M-Maybe I would have said something at some point if he had never left, but now it’s—“  Papyrus let out a sigh. Constantly having to switch between the two Sanses and keep everything in order was becoming increasingly difficult.

“I’m not talking about before, Papyrus. I’m talking about just this morning. He may have forgotten about a lot of things, but I don’t think that loving  yo—“

“Stop! Please, just…j-just…stop,” Papyrus curled in on himself, arms tightening around his legs as he tried to make himself as small as possible. He couldn’t really blame Undyne, he knew that, but even still. How did she not realize how much her words were hurting him?

Undyne quickly shut her mouth as she watched her best friend reduce himself to practically nothing, a feat in itself from how lanky the other monster was. Guilt snapped in her chest and along her skin. With a sigh, Undyne pushed herself to her feet and made her way in front of the huddled bag of bones.

“Sorry, Paps. I…can’t seem to shut my mouth when I’m invested in something like this. It’s just… I hate seeing you hurt, you know that, right? You are such a bright person and you are so, _so strong_. If I were you, I don’t think I’d have been able to stay together as well as you have,” the woman sank to her knees and wrapped her arms around Papyrus’ shoulders and squeezed.

She held him for a moment, feeling how his bones trembled from her words or the embrace. She wasn’t sure. She continued holding him until finally, he stopped shaking and he tilted his head up, a smile on his soft, but angular features. It was a weak smile, but at least it was there. She was impressed that he had actually let her hold him for even that amount of time. He really was improving.

“Th-thank you, Undyne. It…it may take me a while to believe that again, but thank you for being here for me. I don’t think I’d have made it if it wasn’t for you,” the skeleton voiced, nuzzling into his arms once more.

Undyne smiled gently, “Hey, no talking like that, alright? I’m glad to have been here for you. You’re my best friend after all. I’m just so relieved to see how much you’ve gotten better since…before. Actually, I…”

She paused and shifted away from the other monster before clearing her throat, a little guiltily.

“I actually have to go now. I have a meeting with the king and even with River Person’s boat, it takes a while to get to the capital. Will you be alright? I could call him and reschedule if—“

“No! No! I’ll be fine, Undyne! Why didn’t you tell me you had somewhere to be?” Papyrus reprimanded with a tut. He sat up straight and gave his friend a stern look. When Undyne simply laughed at his expression, Papyrus couldn’t help the twitch of his own mouth as it curled into a smile.

“Don’t change, Papyrus,” Undyne simply said before placing a small kiss to the crown of Papyrus’ skull and stood up, her hands on her hips once more. She turned around and made her way out of the house and with a final wave. The door snapped shut a little louder than Papyrus would have liked, but he smiled nonetheless.

It was great to have such loyal friends such as Undyne. He really didn’t know what he would have done without her.

A silence filled the room, leaving nothing but the dull ticking of the clock. With a shaky sigh, Papyrus slid back into the couch, legs slipping once more to the floor. Several minutes passed before the telltale hum of particles separating and reforming got the skeleton’s attention.

Sans stood by the couch now, an odd expression pressed into his face. Papyrus couldn’t tell what it was except for pensive. His soul hiccupped as his face tinged a soft orange. Had Sans over heard his and Undyne’s conversation from earlier? Papyrus swallowed down the lump in his throat as Sans’ gaze flicked over to him.

“I’ve got to admit, that was some pretty quick thinking. I never thought that I’d see the day that the Great Papyrus would blatantly lie to the Captain of the Royal Guard and actually be good at it. …I thought you said that your brother was dead…?”

Papyrus shifted away, eyes dropping to where his hands rested at his femurs. He really had become good at lying, hadn’t he? He hated that fact and the guilt that ate at his bones. He had never wanted to be the type of person to lie. He was once a person of absolute truth. He may have withheld the truth about some things, but he hadn’t ever been one to lie, yet here he was, dishonest with best friend around every corner.

“I…”

Sans shrugged before taking a seat next to the other skeleton. He reached out and rubbed at Papyrus’ shoulder, trying to soothe the taller monster. His fingers scratched absently where the first rib attached to the other’s spine. The small tremor that shook the taller skeleton going unnoticed as Sans stared at the floor, deep in thought.

Although he hadn’t heard all of the conversation between the two monsters, he had picked up enough to gather what they had been talking about and he couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. It was true that he had found himself looking at Papyrus similarly to how he would find himself looking at his own brother. He couldn’t really deny that much because he had caught and berated himself for it multiple times. It was hard not to when Papyrus looked so much like his own brother. More than once had he even slipped and thought of the other skeletons _as_ his real brother.

“…Yes.”

Sans turned his attention back to Papyrus, brow quirked curiously. What? 

At seeing Sans’ confusion Papyrus swallowed and leaned into Sans’ touches, finding a small comfort in them as they pressed and rubbed into his vertebrae. Papyrus closed his eyes and exhaled, a soft hum leaving his teeth despite the heavy topic.

“My brother is dead. He died last year in…in spring. No one really knows the truth about what happened. I…I lied to them because I couldn’t … I couldn’t believe it at the time. I thought that if I lied, that eventually it would become true…That he would come back,” Papyrus explained, “But denial doesn’t help anyone. I’ve learned that it is better to face the truth than to keep believing in a dream that could never come true.”

Sans’ fingers froze in their tracks, even more confused. If that was the case, why would Papyrus keep lying to Undyne but tell him the truth? He was practically a stranger and yet from the start Papyrus had told him the truth. And while he could have just tossed the admission aside like it was a lie as well, just looking at Papyrus told him that he was nothing but truthful right now. _His Sans really had died then…_

A small whine left Papyrus’ mouth and Sans rolled his sockets, amused, before continuing the small petting at the other’s neck. It was almost cute how the taller monster leaned further into his touches. Sans couldn’t help but turn his gaze to Papyrus’ reactions.

Papyrus’ eyes were closed as he nestled into Sans’ hand. A small hum of appreciation rumbled softly in the back of the skeleton’s throat as he trembled slightly. Sans watched, transfixed to the minute details of Papyrus.

His fingers twitched absently in his lap, mouth only slightly parted as little puffs of air escaped his non-existent lungs. His brow relaxed and his body almost slack against the back of the couch. Occasionally, Sans felt the other’s bones quiver and shake, a light orange stain spread across his angular cheekbones. Papyrus really was beautiful and Sans couldn’t help but admit it now. If it were his own Papyrus, he would have pulled away by now.

And he knew he still should. He wanted to, but seeing the content expression on the other skeleton’s face? Sans couldn’t quite bring himself to break contact just yet. Instead, he shifted in his seat on the couch and pressed a firmer hand into Papyrus’ bones. He glided his fingers up the other’s neck and stoked softly at the base of his skull before sliding his hand back down, brushing against his scapula.

When Papyrus let out a soft moan, almost a whine, Sans froze. His face heating up as his soul beat frantically in his chest—urging him to continue. He trembled, _St-stars…That sounded so…_

“Feels good, Sans. D-don’t… Don’t stop…” Papyrus asked, voice hushed to barely above a whisper. Sans would have been lying through his teeth if the tone of voice wasn’t sending little trills over his bones.

Slowly, Sans nodded, ignoring the lump in his throat as he eased back into caressing the back of Papyrus’ neck. He couldn’t help but appreciate the sounds of pleasure in the other’s voice. The little, shaky breaths or the occasional sigh or moan that left Papyrus’ mouth.

His sockets half lidded as he leaned forward and rested his head against Papyrus’ chest, wanting to be closer to the other skeleton; his own breath slightly off kilter. He should really stop, he knew, but he couldn’t bring himself to deny the other his touches. He couldn’t deny that there was a sick part of him that enjoyed hearing the sounds that Papyrus let free. Shakily, Sans finally spoke up, his voice matching the whisper of the other skeleton.

“G-Gods…we are such a mess…”

Papyrus let out a self-deprecating chuckle and reached out a hand to gently weave his fingers into Sans’ free hand. A small hum left his teeth before he leaned forward and pressed his head against Sans’.

“Tell me about it…”

 


	15. Program

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Made a few edits, over 1k extra words written and flows WAY better!

**Program**

 

Papyrus paced outside Sans’ bedroom. His arms were crossed behind his back as he took step after step down the hallway, turned on his heels, and made his way back to where his bedroom door was only to repeat the process again.

It had been a little over a week since Undyne had hit Sans and everything was going much more smoothly on that front. Undyne had eventually apologized and the two brothers had even invited the woman to come over the night before for an alfredo dinner. Which had went a little differently than they had expected.

Papyrus’ mouth twitched into a small smile as he recalled the way that Sans had seemed to be head-over-heels in love with his home-made bread. The smaller skeleton had even gone so far as to swipe Undyne’s roll from her plate when he didn’t think she was looking. Of course the fish monster was just as observant as always and had lunged at him to get it back, making a horrible mess of the mashed potatoes as Sans had simply teleported to the safety of the top of the refrigerator roll clamped between his teeth.

Papyrus knew that if he hadn’t butted in then and there, the two would have likely destroyed the rest of the kitchen if not completely destroyed the fridge in the process.

The taller skeleton shook his head to clear the thought. Now wasn’t the time to think about such things, after all he and Sans had been pouring over the notes from the lab for the last week and still no new information had come to light.

It was obvious that the machine worked on DETERMINATION and Sans seemed to understand how to operate the hunk of metal, but the problem wasn’t in the operation, but the missing elements used to get it running.  They had been able to find a few of the missing things in town the other day, thanks to the generosity of a few citizens and luck that the shop had a three pack of the right size of fuses. Now all they had left to retrieve was a workable motor, and LCD screen or some other sort of display, and some scrap metal to patch everything back together.

Papyrus swallowed as he let his eyes fall to the floor, his feet once again immobile as he stood outside Sans’ door. _And Determination…_ he added, furrowing his brows.

He had no clue how they were going to get some of that. For all he knew, the only way to obtain DETERMINATION was to get it from a human and there was currently only one human in all the underground. Of course, Papyrus knew that it would be a lost cause to bother asking them for the magical ingredient. It wasn’t that easy. But without it, Papyrus didn’t know how Sans was going to get the machine working.

Once again, the younger brother found himself feeling guilty that he rather liked the fact that DETERMINATION was so difficult to get. If they couldn’t get it, then it meant the machine wouldn’t work and if it didn’t work, then Sans couldn’t leave him.

Papyrus took a shaky breath before slowly reaching forward to knock on the door. Abruptly he stopped, staring at his hand as it froze inches away from the deep brown of the other’s door. Thoughts infiltrating his mind once again.

_But what if we do get it to work again? Then what? Will Sans just leave?_

Of course he would.

_How will I explain him leaving again? Undyne would be furious… Grillby will worry and return to his quiet self—not that he isn’t already quiet. The townspeople will start asking questions again…_

And what would _he_ do without Sans?

Papyrus dropped his hands back to his side, his fingers tangling in the hem of his brother’s pink sweater, finding comfort in the motion.

He didn’t necessarily want to admit it, but he was getting used to Sans being in the house with him. He enjoyed the other’s company and even if he wasn’t his brother per say, Papyrus couldn’t help but notice that he had begun thinking of Sans that way. He didn’t know if it was just being around someone again or if it’s the fact that he had someone to look after—that he had a _reason_ to try his best again. All he knew was that ever since Sans had shown up, he was starting to feel a little more like his old self again.

He was smiling more.

He was laughing more.

And dare he say it? He was opening up more.

He  couldn’t deny the fact that being around Sans had opened up the door that he had locked himself behind. He was getting attached and he knew he really shouldn’t since Sans had already told him his plans. Had told him he was going to leave.

 It was unhealthy to rely so much on a single person. Papyrus knew this.

How had he never noticed how much he had relied on his brother to keep him active? To keep him happy and social? He had locked all that away when his Sans had died and now he was doing the exact same thing again with this Sans.

Undyne had called it ‘co-dependence’, but as much as he tried, he couldn’t see why it was considered a bad thing. What was so wrong about needing to be with another person? Being with people could be great and he knew that Sans seemed to be doing a lot better since they had begun hanging out as well.

Papyrus looked down and saw just how horribly his hands were shaking. Swallowing, he pulled his fingers from his sleeves and tilted his head back, taking in a deep but unsteady breath. He squeezed his eyes shut and took deep breathes until finally his hands stopped shaking and his breath evened out.

After he had calmed himself, Papyrus schooled his features, putting on a determined expression before he lifted his hand and knocked on the door. The less a mess he seemed, the better. He wasn’t quite ready for Sans to know just how much this entire project was weighing on him.

“SANS! IT’S ALMOST NOON AND I THINK THAT IF WE ARE GOING TO GO TO THE DUMP TODAY, NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO WAKE UP!” he voiced, putting a little extra ‘umph’ into his speech, wanting to sound as collected as he was supposed to be.

When there was no reply, he gave another firm knock. He was given a sleepy groan and the shifting of sheets as a reply, yet when everything went quiet again and Sans didn’t appear, Papyrus rolled his eyes and opened the door.

 Even after the week and a half that Sans had been living with him, his brother’s room remained in a mostly organized state. A glass of half-drank water sat on the end table beside Sans’ bed. A few shirts poked outside the drawer, but otherwise everything was how he had left it. Somehow, the lack of mess unsettled him.

Quickly shaking the thought from his mind, Papyrus made his way to Sans’ bed, giving a mischievous ‘NYEH!’ before he tossed himself onto the mattress. He let out a chuckle as he watched the other skeleton startle awake, a violet mist drifting from Sans’ eye before it settled back to incredulous white lights.

“The hell, Papyrus?! I could have just dusted you!” Sans hissed out, sweat beading down the back of his skull, his soul racing at being scared into wakefulness. He was just glad that he hadn’t had a real nightmare the night before otherwise the threat really could have been possible.

 Papyrus simply smiled wider and rested a bare hand on the other’s disheveled shirt.

“Nyeh heh! I trust you, Sans. Besides, if you had answered me, then I wouldn’t have had to take my role as the _responsible_ brother so seriously and come wake you. You did still want to go look for some of those parts today, right?” The skeleton furrowed his brows, smile slipping just a bit. He hadn’t somehow missed Sans telling him otherwise, right?

Sans’ eyes widened as he jerked around to look out the window. Sputtering, the smaller skeleton jumped to his feet, his legs tangling in the blankets and tripping on them, “What time is it?” Papyrus quickly reached forward, grabbing Sans by the arm, steadying him before Sans could perform a pretty stellar face plant.

“Almost noon.”

 “Th-Thanks, Paps. And yeah I wanna go, just let me get dressed.”

Papyrus released the other’s arm, a small smile tugged at his mouth as Sans made his way to the dressers and started looking for something to wear. Though he would have been content if Sans had decided to just continue wearing those space-print pajamas. They way that they hung loosely around his hips and showed just a hint of his pelvis was—

Papyrus’s eyes widened and he quickly he turned his attention away, face heating up to a bright orange. Immediately, he set himself to staring at the blue walls as Sans tugged his shirt over his head and tossed another on.

Sans dressed quickly, face warm as Papyrus remained in the room with him. Even though he knew that the other monster was looking away, the thought of Papyrus watching him undress was a little thrilling.  He shoved that thought aside like a plate of rotton spaghetti and finished getting dressed.

“Alright, I’m ready when you are,” Sans called out, pulling the hem of a yellow shirt down.

Papyrus quickly got to his feet and made his way to the door, glancing over the other’s form for just a moment before turning away.

“Good! Then if we hurry, we can get to the dump in a timely manner! If we are lucky, maybe we could even find some of those do-dads from your list before dark!” Papyrus called out, a chipper tone back in place.

Sans let out a small chuckle of his own before he stepped forward, his hands stuffed into a pair of blue and black cargo pants. Surprisingly, they were pretty comfortable; almost more so than his own shorts.  Even so, Sans missed the comfort of a hoodie and wished he didn’t have to leave home without one.

 

The two monsters had made their way down the stairs and to the front door by the time that Papyrus had noticed that Sans was still without any shoes. His slippers were long gone and Papyrus had yet to buy him any new footwear. Guilty, the skeleton turned on his heels and made his way up the stairs once more, leaving Sans to watch him with a quirked brow.

When Papyrus came back out of his room, he was cradling something red in his arms. Sans looked at him curiously, before Papyrus stopped in front of him and gently set a pair of somewhat worn sneakers in front of him and a pair of too-large socks.

Sans looked at him with amusement and a bit of reluctance before Papyrus huffed at him, arms crossed over his slender chest.

“I can’t just let you walk around with bare feet, Sans! Just put them on so we can go,” Papyrus replied, face dusted with a hint of orange as he averted his gaze. Sans couldn’t help but smile at that. His own Papyrus would have reacted the same way, he thought, though his brother wouldn’t have blushed over something so trivial. He had to admit, it was pretty cute. With that thought, Sans leaned down to slip on the socks and shoes.

“Thanks, Paps. Maybe we could find some more clothes at the dump too so that I don’t have to keep wearing your brother’s clothes,” he added as he tightened up the laces so that he wouldn’t trip and fall.

When Sans stood back up, Papyrus was eying him with a strange furrowing of his brow. Sans swallowed and went to stuff his hands into his hoodie in his nervousness. Unfortunately, he had to deal with fidgeting his hands, face warming up from the embarrassment of being stared at. _W-what? Is something on my face?_

Papyrus shook his head and sighed before opening the door. A cold breeze swept by, making the taller of the monsters shiver before he got used to the cool air. He gave Sans once final sweep before turning to the door, the words almost inaudible as they slipped through his teeth, “But you look good in them…”

Even if he knew they hadn’t been intended for him to hear, Sans had picked up the other’s words and flushed, face hinted with soft blue. When Papyrus stepped out the door, Sans quickly followed after him into the relatively warm Snowdin air.

Smiles slipped onto both the brothers’ mouths as they tilted their head back and inhaled deeply. Noticing the other had done the same thing, the two let out a faint chuckle, eying the other with amusement.

Sans rolled his eye lights and gently elbowed the other monster, “C’mon, bro, let’s get to the dump. I bet you there is a _garbage heap_ of good stuff to find.” Papyrus let out a small groan but couldn’t hold back the little giggle that pushed its way from his mouth before he rolled his eyes as well and followed after his smaller companion. 

Even though the walk to the border between Snowdin and Waterfall wasn’t too far from their home, Sans almost immediately attracted the attention of several monsters. It only got worse when he passed by the old sentry station.

Monster Kid and one of the young Bunny sisters followed closely behind, whispering amongst themselves as they motioned toward the smaller skeleton. The fish man that stood by the station about dropped his cigarette as he caught sight of Sans.

Papyrus couldn’t help feel a little annoyed with the way that the kids, the strange fish guy, and now Woshua’s stares seemed to make Sans uncomfortable. He watched as his brother shrunk in on himself and stepped forward with a larger gait.  Papyrus let out a huff of and turned around to tell everyone to mind their own business when he felt Sans’ hand brush up against his hand.

Though he didn’t say anything, the ‘just ignore them’ look Sans gave him was enough to quiet him down. When they had finally slipped away from the small crowd and reached the first of the waterfalls that gave the area its name, Papyrus finally calmed down yet Sans remained tense. Suddenly Papyrus couldn’t stand it.

“SO TELL ME ABOUT WATERFALL IN YOUR TIMELINE” Papyrus blurted out, trying to find something to break the unsettling quiet.

Sans flinched at the sudden loudness of Papyrus’ voice but relaxed when he realized they weren’t in any danger. The smile that playing over his face wider than normal, “Okay then. Not much to say really. I worked at the sentry station back there for a while. Well one of my stations. Sometimes I’d sell hotcats there. They were more popular than the hotdogs in my timeline, pretty funny huh?

“I used to come to Waterfall a lot when I wasn’t doing so well, but didn’t want to bother my brother with my silly problems—“

Papyrus creased his brows, mouth going tight.

 “I highly doubt your problems were ‘silly’, Sans. I’m sure your Papyrus would have been glad to help you if only you’d have let him,” the skeleton replied, voice low as he watched his shoes click on the sturdy wood of the bridge as they passed over it.

Sans flicked his eyes to the other and shifted a little on his feet before continuing, “I...I know he would have, but this whole timeline business is a lot darker than you realize. I couldn’t drag him into this mess. Besides, he’d forget by the time the next reset happened.”

Papyrus scoffed, hands on his hips, “All the more reason to tell him! I’d like to think that he would remember, but since I didn’t know anything about them, maybe he wouldn’t have. But even if he didn’t, that is no reason not to confide in him. He still would have cared. You are just as entitled to have a good life as he is,” he explained, noticing how Sans cringed at the words and looked away.

Papyrus stepped closer and brushed his knuckles over Sans’ temple, gently turning the other’s skull to face him, “even if you don’t believe it yourself.”

Sans let out a dull, hollow laugh that portrayed exactly what he thought about the other’s words and Papyrus let out a growl, startling the smaller monster.

 “Will you stop that? You are a good person Sans and you deserve a good life just as much as anyone else and if you don’t believe it, then I’ll take it upon myself to prove it to you!”

Heat crept its way up to Sans’ face at Papyrus’ words before shuffling forward. _What is with Papyruses and their stubborness_? He couldn’t help the thought before Papyrus began speaking again. Sans’ gaze slid up to watch his ‘brother’ talk, taking in the way his mouth moved and the little details of his face when he spoke.

“As many differences you and my brother have, you also have so many similarities. Have you noticed that? Does your Papyrus and I also share any similarities?” The younger asked, his brows furrowing slightly in thought as he tried to piece together what he wanted to say.

Sans nodded, shrugging a little, “You have a lot of similarities, yeah.” He continued watching Papyrus, his own brow crumpled, trying to figure out where Papyrus was going with this.

The taller nodded, “I thought so. I’ve been thinking a lot about the timelines this last week and I don’t know as much as you know about them. I know I’m not exactly an expert or anything, but I’ve been thinking…

“What if everyone in the timelines are intrinsically the same person as their alternate self from other timelines?”

After seeing the confused look on Sans’ face, Papyrus continued.

“I mean, you and my brother have so much in common: You are both short, look almost identical –though you are a little taller and have that crack—you both like puns or jokes. You both confide in Grillby. You both seem to be depressed and hide secrets from your brothers,” he gave Sans a pointed look at that and Sans flinched under the other’s gaze. Papyrus ignored it and continued on.

 “You are kind and faithful to fault. You both really care about your brother. I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence between our timelines or if it is something that is universal among all Sanses of the timelines. All I know is that if there are so many similarities, what is to say that you aren’t my real brother just like my Sans? The only thing that really differs between you two are things that I believe would be changed based off of how your world behaved differently than mine.”

Sans hadn’t noticed that his eyes had widened or his mouth hung partially opened as he took in Papyrus’ words. As much as he wanted to deny it, Papyrus really did have a point.

This Papyrus was so similar to his own brother and as he said, the only real differences between them were things that could have happened because Papyrus had lost his own Sans. How fragile he seemed. How Papyrus was less active. How quiet he was in comparison to his own brother. Sans could tell that Papyrus was uncomfortable with physical contact sometimes too. He didn’t dish out hugs all the time like his Papyrus. Even the way he talked and acted around Undyne was so vastly different. All of these things could be triggered from the way Papyrus had lost his Sans and might not be something completely natural to him in this timeline.

Even though he also didn’t know too much about the timelines himself, he had seen flickers of other timelines in his dreams.

A long time ago he had assumed that they were flashes of his own life—and still he supposed they were in some ways. He remembered some of the scenes as if they had come from his own life. Looking back on it, he realized that they might have been separate timelines all together. Possibly even different dimensions because where there were problems with the flow of time, there were often anomalies of space as well. And he had seen hundreds of them.

In one particular timeline, he remembered being brought up in a world where it was ‘kill or be killed’. Snowdin was the lowest of the low and monsters fought each other every day. Papyrus wasn’t the tender and optimistic bundle he had raised but instead he was violent, powerful, and not afraid at all to put a monster in their place—including Sans. But even with his abuse, Sans had been loyal to a fault.

 In another timeline, he had seen himself so grief-stricken by losing his brother to a genocidal human that he had devised a plan to destroy the timeline all together. A version of himself that had learned to control and use the power of resets just to make sure that Papyrus would never have to suffer again.

In yet another he was a science and puzzle-loving bundle of energy who took on his brother’s enthusiasm of catching humans for the king. He had been devoid of the angry bags under his eyes and yet still loved his brother so dearly while Papyrus took on the burden of the resets. Those permanent bags under Papyrus’ eyes evidence enough of the burden he had to bear.

Sans had no clue how he had never pieced such obvious similarities together. He had been looking at timelines for so many years that he couldn’t even pinpoint how long it had bene since it had started. Suddenly, he found that he couldn’t help but gape up at Papyrus as the taller skeleton looked at him with such patient eyes. _Maybe…_

Maybe all Sanses and all Papyruses really _were_ the same, but the way their world functioned was what gave them their differences. _Like some kind of progra—_

Sans violently shoved that thought from his mind. Yet his soul continued thumping in his chest, leading him back along those dangerous tracks.

Even some of the terminology they used supports the crazy idea. ‘Resets’. ‘Saves’... They all seemed like words that would be used in something like a video game and—

No!

He couldn’t allow himself to start thinking like that. Like they were just some kind of program that performed differently based on the user in control. He couldn’t allow it because if he thought too hard on about it, then what really was the point of trying after all?

They were real people with real lives. Real goals and real emotions. They were _real_.

Sans swallowed, hands shaking before he finally locked eyes with Papyrus, mouth still slightly agape. “How did you even—“ he started, reaching a hand out for Papyrus’ own fingers as he felt his legs go weak and unsteady.  He needed something to stabilize himself before he broke apart. His soul just wouldn’t calm down and when did his breathing become so violent?

Papyrus’s eyes widened and he quickly took Sans by the hand and pulled him forward, wrapping his arms around the other skeleton’s frame just started falling over. He hugged his brother tight before gently pulling away, hands still clinging to Sans’ fingers and now his arm.

“S-Sans! Hey, shhh. It’s okay, just breathe for me, alright? Deep breaths!” Papyrus urged. His voice shook as he tried to guide the other along. Sans only panted, his eye lights flickering unsteadily before he felt Papyrus ease his head back and guide him to a nearby log to sit down.

Papyrus pressed a hand to Sans’ brow and pet along the soft curves, feeling the dampness of sweat beading from his skull. He watched as Sans closed his eyes and did as he had told him. The sound of deep, shuddery breaths mingling with the flowing of water. Papyrus continued soothing the other skeleton and after several long minutes, Sans finally began to calm down. His fingers still clutching desperately to Papyrus in a painful grip, but Papyrus couldn’t find it in himself to care about the pain. It was nothing to what he knew that Sans must be going through. He had been there a few times himself and he knew all too well that Sans needed grounding before he fell apart at the seams.

After a few more minutes, Sans leaned into Papyrus’ chest and let out a soft, almost deprecating chuckle, “Heh…Just how many times am I going to lose it around you?”

Papyrus clicked his teeth in reprimanding, “There is nothing wrong with showing your emotions, Sans. An anxiety attack is no laughing matter and I’d prefer to be around to help you through them.”

Sans was quiet before shifting away, eyes turned away when he spoke.

“It’s still embarrassing. I’m the older brother and I should be the one taking care of you, not the other way around…”

The soul in his chest fluttered at Sans’ words. _‘Brother’. He finally called himself my brother_. Papyrus swallowed the mixed feelings in his chest, not yet knowing how he felt about the word. It was a great, pleasurable feeling, but at the same time they hurt. _Bittersweet._

Papyrus shook his head and brought Sans’ head back to his chest and held him, chastising him once last time, “We are family, Sans. We are supposed to take care of each other.”

With that, the brothers sat quietly, holding on to each other as the sounds of Waterfall drowned out the soft pattering of feet heading in their direction. It wasn’t until the shocked sound of a woman’s voice startled the two that they realized they had an audience.

 “Oh! Sorry to interrupt, but are you two all right?”

Papyrus whirled his head around at the sudden voice, body tense as he held Sans closer. He wasn’t particularly fond of people gawking at his brother since Sans had shown express discomfort in it before, but when he realized who the voice belonged to, the skeleton immediately relaxed. Sans on the other hand, went wide-eyed and tensed right back up.

“Miss Toriel!

“Y-Your Highness!”

When the woman slipped her doe eyes toward him and gave such suspicious regard, Sans knew that he had—once again—messed up.

 


End file.
